Congressman Jodey Arrington of the 19th District, Ronny Jackson of the 13th District and Mike Conoway provided an update for the upcoming 2023 Farm Bill which was held at South Plains Implement in Levelland on Thursday.
The previous farm bill was passed in 2018, and runs on a five-year cycle. With negotiations heating up right about now, Republicans are in a slim majority of the House of Representatives and Democrats are holding the Senate. With the bill currently being worked through congress, the event was more of a discussion with constituents.
Congressman Arrington stated they were there to gather the concerns of their constituents to take back to their colleagues for future discussions around the bill.
In his opening remarks, Arrington spoke about the importance of independence in the terms of agriculture and energy. He explained that the COVID-19 pandemic opened many American’s eyes to how interdependent the country was on regarding things such as food sources and supply chains.
He also added that he hopes to promote and empower more food security and independence with the passing of this bill. Jackson shared many of the same sentiments, but also spoke about the importance of being active in various committees that see direct impact their constituents.
Jackson painted a picture of an uphill battle while his district is still one of the leading agriculture production districts in the state of Texas. He added that the districts he holds along with Arringtons’ district are vital to keeping Texas a Republican-led state.
Both congressman shared the same sentiment about passing a bill that the could both be proud of with the current dynamics of the House and Senate.
Arrington explained that the House will come up with what they think a bill should contain, and the Senate will do that same, then the two houses will come together and try to find some middle ground, which won’t be easy as they each contain pieces core to either political parties ideologies.
One piece that the congressmen claim takes the lions share is that of the SNAP program and others like it.
According to them, SNAP takes as much as 83% of the Farm Bill’s proposed funding, leaving only 17% for production agriculture and other programs.
For a bill to be passed, Democrats will need to compromise on things such as SNAP benefits and the same for Republicans and farming issues.
The current plan for the House is to create the most farming-heavy bill that can pass, as the differences between the House’s bill and the Senate’s are likely to be great.
Most concerning, Representative Arrington explained that, while they did not wish to use it, a governmental shutdown would be the only tool Republicans had in order to force certain issues.
The three congressmen spent the later portion of the event by fielding questions from concerned citizens.
Ranging from the stagnant price of cotton to the current state of the border and how the congressmen will try to approach those topics when they return to congress.
Overall, Arrington stressed the implementation of a safety net for producers who could face further rough conditions such as they did this past year caused by the severe drought.
Instead of providing aid after the fact, Arrington has hopes of putting in place guidelines and policies that will aid producers beforehand.