Chairwoman Stabenow Introduces Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act (Farm Bill)

November 19, 2024

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(Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry) U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) Monday introduced the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act. The bill includes $39 billion in new resources to keep farmers farming, families fed, and rural communities strong.

Chairwoman Stabenow said: “The foundation of every successful Farm Bill is built on holding together the broad, bipartisan Farm Bill coalition. This is a strong bill that invests in all of agriculture, helps families put food on the table, supports rural prosperity, and holds that coalition together.”

The bill builds on the proposal Chairwoman Stabenow released in May by investing new resources and including innovative, new ideas to deliver the assistance farmers need faster. It provides farmers with the certainty of a 5-year Farm Bill – so they can plan for the future – and the immediate help they need to manage the urgent needs of the present. It doubles down on our commitment to rural communities, ensures that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) keeps up with the realities of American life, and brings the historic investments in climate-smart conservation practices into the Farm Bill. These new investments include:

$20 billion to strengthen the farm safety net to support all of agriculture and establishes a permanent structure for disaster assistance so emergency relief reaches farmers faster.
$8.5 billion to help families make ends meet, put food on the table, and improve access to nutrition assistance.
$4.3 billion to improve quality of life in the rural communities that millions of Americans call home.

A summary of the bill is available here.

Bill text is available here. READ MORE

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Chairwoman Stabenow Statement on the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act (Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry)

Excerpt from Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry: This is a robust bill that puts more farm in the Farm Bill for all of our commodities, but not at the expense of rural communities and American families that are critical to holding the Farm Bill coalition together.

It provides farmers with the certainty of a 5-year Farm Bill – so they can plan for the future – and the assistance they need to manage the urgent needs they have right now.

It authorizes a permanent disaster program to ensure that we have a process in place when disasters like hurricanes Helene and Milton strike.

This new program will put a consistent process in place so farmers have certainty, and USDA can get the money out the door.

No more scrambling. No more leaving farmers behind.

It also makes a significant investment in Title 1 for the 22 row crops that receive the lion’s share of the resources available in the House proposal.

It moves up Agriculture Risk (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program payments by six months, so farmers receive the assistance faster that they need to keep their operations going.

And it increases effective reference prices by as much as 15%, with all 22 commodities getting at least a 5% increase, for the first time in a decade.

The Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act continues to improve crop insurance by making it more affordable and ensuring that all farmers have access to this critical tool. It provides more coverage to more farmers at a lower cost.

Importantly, I include a provision that will partially reimburse farmers’ crop insurance premiums and NAP fees to put cash in their pockets to address the urgent needs they are facing right now.

The bill strengthens support for specialty crops and ensures that farmers have the support they need to put American grown fruits and vegetables on the table.

This is a significant investment in all farmers and all of agriculture because farming is one of the riskiest businesses there is, and it is getting even riskier with the climate crisis.

How many “once in a generation” storms or droughts need to hit our farmers over the head before we take this crisis seriously?

This bill will roll the historic investment we made in the Inflation Reduction Act into the Farm Bill baseline for the future. These dollars put cash into farmers’ pockets to put popular, voluntary conservation programs to work.

This will make our farms more resilient by putting carbon in the ground, which is good for crops, and taking it out of the atmosphere, which is good for all of us.

That is what I call a win-win!

I am also including new investments in biofuels, loans, local foods, trade, and the list goes on and on, including a down payment on a much-needed ag research moonshot

But a Farm Bill is not just about investing in farmers. It’s also about investing in the communities they call home.

We know that rural communities are shrinking, and it’s getting harder and harder to pass the farm onto the next generation.

In this bill we are betting that rural prosperity is American prosperity.

It improves quality of life for rural families by improving rural health care, including mental health, and childcare.

It grows the middle class by creating good-paying jobs in manufacturing, entrepreneurship, and small businesses in rural America.

It increases our investment in connecting rural communities to high-speed internet, which everyone in this Chamber agrees is essential to their success in the world we live in today.

Whether it’s a child being able to do their homework, or a farmer being able to see a doctor, or a small business being able to access new markets beyond their rural Main Street, that all starts with reliable, high-speed internet access.

And importantly, this bill makes sure that rural communities are not left behind when it comes to accessing the resources of the federal government.

When it comes to securing federal grants, I know that my hometown of Clare can’t compete with Detroit or New York City when it comes to staffing. So, we level the playing field by investing in the resources rural communities need to compete by hiring grant writers, planners, and advisors to provide technical assistance.

And finally, it is discouraging to me that the needs of families have been lost in this debate over the last two years.

Yes. The Farm Bill must be the backbone of support for farmers and ranchers across the country.

Yes. The Farm Bill must ensure that farming and a rural way of life can thrive today and into the future.

Yes. The Farm Bill is where we put the support of the American people behind the women and men who feed, clothe, and fuel this country.

I challenge anyone to look at my record as a leader on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee and say with a straight face that I am not a stalwart champion for farmers and ranchers.

But a Farm Bill must also be about the single mother in Michigan working two jobs who needs just a little bit of help to put food on the table so her children can thrive.

At a time when food insecurity rates in our country increased for the second year in a row, it is absolutely unacceptable for anyone to attempt to cut SNAP and other nutrition programs.

I refuse to leave this mom behind. Not on my watch.

We should be investing in the Farm Bill nutrition programs that are at the heart of the family safety net in this country.

My Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act does that and lays the groundwork to see a future where we end hunger in America.

It protects nutrition assistance and draws a clear line in the sand that we will not walk away from the progress we have made to keep families fed in this country.

This is a bill that keeps farmers farming, families fed, and rural communities strong.

And it is a robust bill that is paid for using the same resources that my Republican colleagues in the House used to pay for their bill – without dividing the broad, bipartisan coalition that has always been the foundation of the Farm Bill.

In my time leading Democrats on this Committee, I have locked arms with Republican leaders like Pat Roberts to defend programs that may not have been my priority because it meant holding the coalition together.

Farm Bills failed to pass the House in 2012 and 2018 because Republicans included cutting food assistance and did not have the votes to pass the bills on their own.

In 2018, the Farm Bill passed the Senate with a historic 87 votes. The 13 “nays” were all Republicans.

Looking to the future, Project 2025, the road map for the incoming Trump Administration, proposes eliminating ARC and PLC – the very same programs the House Republican bill makes their top priority.

It would also gut crop insurance, terminate U.S. sugar production, and slash trade promotion programs.

This is why it should be no secret why the House Farm Bill has yet to receive a vote on the House Floor – it does not have the Republican votes to pass.

And the last time I checked, that Chamber will be similarly divided in the 119th Congress.

So, I would encourage my Republican colleagues to rethink their proposal to make the largest cut to SNAP in more than 30 years, and join with us to pass a meaningful five-year Farm Bill now that includes immediate assistance that our farmers need.

The Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act is robust, adding $39 billion to the Farm Bill baseline. It is bipartisan with over 100 bipartisan bills included, and it balances the needs of farmers, ranchers, families, and rural communities.

It holds the broad Farm Bill coalition together, which is critical for the future of farm bill, and I firmly believe it is the best and probably only path forward to pass a 5-year Farm Bill this year.

I urge my colleagues to consider it seriously. READ MORE