PIERRE S.D. (MITCHELLNOW) The House Agriculture Committee has published a draft of the Farm Bill which included several of Congressman Dusty Johnson’s bills and priorities for rural America.
The subjects of the bills that Congressman Johnson has proposed that have been included in the draft Farm Bill include: safeguards to protect US producers from unfair trade practices, uniform labeling standards for pesticides, increased investment in small meat packers, assistance to new and expanding livestock or meat processors, reauthorization of the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive programs, as well as other items.
The farm bill does all of the usual things farm bills do like authorizing and increasing support for crop insurance, conservation reserve programs, guaranteed loan programs as well as reauthorizing the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant programs. In addition, the bill ensures the transparency of ownership of farmland by foreign persons, especially those considered by be our adversaries (Chinese communists for example).
The bill also has nutrition programs as a component of the bill. Disease protections and responses for ag producers in case of catastrophic foreign animal diseases. It reauthorizes the Sun Grant Program and expands its scope to include bioproducts as well as updating USDA broadband programs.
There are other provisions to the bill as it goes to mark up in committee. The bill has not yet been finalized. When passed, the term of the new farm bill is expected to be for a five-year duration.