Policy Updates and Issue News May 2024

House Passes New Farm Bill

The House Agriculture Committee passed the new farm bill May 23 by a vote of 33-21 with four Democratic committee members voting in favor of the Republican measure. This is the first step in what is expected to be a lengthy process. The package, The Farm, Food, and National Security Act, is not expected to get full house floor time until September. No action has been scheduled yet by the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Here are the highlights of several key titles of the Act:

• Title 1 Commodities – Raises reference prices (safety net prices) for commodity production including increases to the Price Loss Coverage program and the Agriculture Risk Coverage program. Payment limits and the Adjusted Gross Income means test are adjusted for inflation. The Dairy Margin Coverage program is extended through 2029. The Act restores the ”higher of” Class I mover to reinstate orderly milk marketing and require plant cost studies every two years to provide better data to inform future make allowance considerations. The Dairy Forward Pricing Program and the Dairy Indemnity Program are extended.
• Title 2 Conservation – Rescinds available Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) conservation funding and reallocates it to farm bill conservation programs without the IRA’s original climate change mitigation requirements.
• Title 4 Nutrition – Creates a new competitive food box pilot program and prioritizes organizations with experience, demonstrated partnerships, and a track record of purchasing from small local producers. It increases funding for local food initiatives like the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, the Community Food Projects Program, and the Emergency Food Assistance Program. Savings from cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be controversial when the bill reaches the House floor.
• Title 5 Credit – The bill increases the limits for direct operating loans, farm ownership loans and microloans. It also authorizes USDA to restructure guaranteed loan debt and shifts the burden of proof from farmers to USDA when appealing a denial.
• Title 6 Rural Development – The Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network was reauthorized.
• Title 12 Miscellaneous – Provides funding for grants and resources to small and medium size meat and poultry processors to expand capacity through equipment upgrades.

Prospects to enact a farm bill into law yet this year remain quite uncertain. The House farm bill is tentatively scheduled for floor action in September, but will there be enough bipartisan support to pass it? Right now, there are no plans in the Senate to move a farm bill. The best prospects for getting a farm bill to the President’s desk will be during the November-December lame duck session of Congress after the elections.

USDA Requires Electronic Animal Identification

All sexually intact cattle and bison 18 months of age or older, all dairy cattle, and all cattle and bison of any age for exhibition must now have official ear tags that are visually and electronically readable. The intent of the rule is rapid traceability in a disease outbreak that will limit how long farms and ranches are quarantined, prevent more animals from getting sick, and to keep markets open.

FDA Issues Ag Water Safety Rule

The Food and Drug Administration has released its long-awaited final rule to ensure agricultural water doesn’t contaminate fresh produce with dangerous pathogens. The regulations implement pre-harvest water requirements for covered produce required by the Food Safety Modernization Act signed into law in 2011. The new regulations require a pre-harvest assessment of the water source, type of delivery system, environmental conditions such as heavy rains, impacts from adjacent land use and other factors.

Bird Flu Precautions

Although the risk to humans is considered slim at this point, the Department of Health and Human Services has ordered production of human bird flu vaccines as a precaution. HHS has asked CSL Seqirus to manufacture 4.8 million doses for the potential use to protect at-risk farm workers. Scientists have indicated that several mutations of the H5N1 virus are necessary before the virus can spread from human to human, risking a pandemic. USDA has begun reimbursing the cost of personal protective equipment to dairy farmers whose farms are affected. Farms can also receive up to $1,500 per affected premises for enhanced biosecurity for individuals that frequent the farms such as milk haulers, veterinarians, feed trucks, etc.

Timely Access to COVID Vaccine

The National Grange along with several senior, medical and patient groups are urging the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make COVID-19 vaccine available by early September this year to correspond with the availability of flu vaccine. For decades, consumers have been urged to get flu vaccine in the early fall to reduce the risk of illness. That guidance has been extended to the COVID-19 vaccine and earlier availability will allow patients to receive both vaccines at the same time.

Reduce Rural Cancer with Multi-Cancer Screening

The National Grange wrote 121 letters to the bipartisan leadership of several Senate committees and their staffs to urge them to consider S. 2085 as they discuss rural health disparities during their scheduled Senate Finance Committee hearing. The bipartisan bill enjoys 61 Senate cosponsors and would direct Medicare to cover multi-cancer early detection screening tests as a meaningful policy to improve rural cancer disparities.

Medicare Should Cover Obesity Treatment

National Grange president Christine Hamp sent 41 letters to members of the House Ways and Means Committee and their staffs asking them to include expanding Medicare coverage for anti-obesity medications as they plan their legislative calendar for the remainder of the year. Hamp relayed that Medicare-dependent rural America is facing an escalating and costly obesity crisis which adversely affects the health and well-being of older rural residents. The Grange also cosigned a letter to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to press for Medicare Part D coverage of obesity medications.

Don’t Restrict Diabetes Self-Management

The National Grange joined several patient and medical groups to request the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to not restrict patient access to FDA-approved devices for self-management of Type 1 and insulin-dependent Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is a chronic condition that requires proactive daily management of glucose levels. Self-management with approved devices such as glucose monitors and insulin pumps by people who are insulin dependent are critical to this process. These devices should not be the targets of cost-saving restrictions by Medicare.

Alzheimer’s Work Should Continue

The National Grange joined the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease to convey perspectives regarding the Food and Drug Administration’s work on treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. In a filing with the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, the groups emphasized the significant medical needs of people living with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and commended the inclusion of community-based clinical trial sites to access a broader population of people affected. Research has found that people living in rural areas have a heightened risk for Alzheimer’s and related dementia.

Can States and Localities Fill ACP Gap?

The lack of urgency at the federal level to continue the Affordable Connectivity Program has caused several states and local communities to create their own ACP-like broadband subsidy programs. There are 23 million households enrolled in ACP and another 25 million eligible for the program subsidy but have not yet enrolled.

NTIA Reviewing State Broadband Deployment Plans

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is deep into reviewing state-level proposals for grants from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) fund aimed at deploying high-speed broadband to unserved and underserved areas across the country. States and territories initially received $100 million each in BEAD funding but are required to submit five-year action plans to NTIA before receiving additional dollars. Unfortunately, environmental reviews, historic preservation reviews and permitting challenges are already slowing the deployment process.

Survey: Immigration is Top Problem

Immigration has been the most politically polarizing issue mentioned in the past 24 years according to the Gallup polling firm. In the latest (April) Gallup poll, immigration topped the list of most important problems facing the U.S. for the third month in a row. Since 2001, the economy has been the top problem 101 times while government has held the top spot 85 times, and the Iraq war has registered 50 top appearances.

Solar Storm Knocks Out Smart Agriculture

The solar storm that brought the aurora borealis to large portions of the country also broke GPS and precision agriculture functionality in tractors and agricultural equipment during a critical point of the planting season. 404 Media reported that some dealerships warned their customers that the accuracy of some tractor systems were being extremely compromised during the solar storm. One farmer reported a tractor veering three to six feet off course from time to time because of satellite interference. . The outages highlight how vulnerable modern farming equipment can be to satellite disruptions.

“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t going away.”  ~  Elvis Presly

“Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.”   ~  Helen Keller

“Love cometh like sunshine after rain.”  ~  William Shakespeare