BY: TIM CARPENTER, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids and former Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts share bipartisan angst about political gridlock impeding progress on a new five-year farm bill outlining federal programs in agriculture, conservation, nutrition and trade.
Davids, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee, and Roberts, who was the first member of Congress to chair both the House and Senate agriculture committees, said during a joint appearance at the Olathe campus of Kansas State University that there was good reason to be concerned about reaching consensus on a farm bill. The current law enacted in 2018 was extended one year to Sept. 30, 2024, after Congress failed to make a deal last fall.
“You can see that the economy and the future of our state is so tied up on how well our farmers and producers in the ag sector are doing,” said Davids, who serves the five-county 3rd District. “The farm bill is not a partisan issue. I’ll continue working to pass a bipartisan farm bill this year.”
She said after touring a Johnson County farm and taking part in a roundtable discussion on agriculture that the tradition of the House and Senate taking a bipartisan approach to the farm bill was being challenged by combative politicians in Washington, D.C.
“I was honored to be joined by so many agriculture professionals and policymakers from both parties as we work to ensure Kansas producers have the support needed to thrive,” Davids said.
Ideologues on the right
Roberts, who retired in 2021 and three terms in the U.S. Senate and eight terms in the U.S. House, said there was an 80% chance the Congress wouldn’t reach agreement this year on a new farm bill. It’s noteworthy, he said, that others with congressional experience were convinced there was no chance of a bill passing this year.
He said serving as agriculture committee chairman during work on four farm bills taught him lawmakers — urban and rural, conservative and liberal — had to set aside differences and reach across the aisle.
“We know the most important thing when you get down to it is to get a bill passed to provide farmers certainty and predictability,” Roberts said. That is the most important question you have with the farm bill. Unfortunately, that is not the most important question we see today in the House of Representatives.”
During a news conference with Davids, the Kansas agriculture secretary and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s deputy secretary, Roberts said the fate of the farm bill inspired him to speak frankly about damage caused by the House Freedom Caucus composed of the chamber’s most conservative members. He said nearly two-dozen in this furthest-right block — especially a core group of perhaps eight GOP “ideologues” — were eager to engage in political conflict rather than pragmatic governing.
“That’s not the House that I represented for many years or, for that matter, the Senate,” Roberts said. “If you’re an ideologue, they’re right and you’re wrong. No amount of talking or reasonable conversation or whatever is going to bring them to the table. That’s what we’re faced with. Quite frankly, the Republican Party in the House of Representatives is in danger of losing their majority due to this kind of performance, or nonperformance.”
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, also a Kansas Republican, separately shared frustration with pace of work on the new farm bill and raised an alarm about the potential of the bill not be completed before the clock ran out in September.
Kansas ag future
Davids was joined by Roberts, USDA deputy secretary Xochitl Torres Small, Kansas agriculture secretary Mike Beam, former U.S. Rep. Jim Slattery of Kansas and former U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota for the tour last week of Finley Farms, a family-owned farming operation in Edgerton specializing in growing corn and soybeans.
Findley Farms, which is a sixth-generation business, turned to funding provided through the USDA’s environmental quality incentives program, or EQIP, to build a tiled pipe system on terraced fields to better manage water and minimize erosion.
“It was through that investment that they were able to look at the best way, the most efficient way to grow their corn and be able to pass that farm on for generations,” Torres Small said. “We know we succeed when we invest in farmers and rural communities.”
After the tour, the group took part in a roundtable conversation on Kansas agriculture with representatives from Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas Farmers Union, National Crop Insurance Services, Kansas Livestock Association and other commodity groups, grocers, and local agriculture professionals.
“It is critically important for Kansas to have bipartisan representation in Congress, and this is especially important for the agriculture committee,” said Slattery, a Democrat who served in the U.S. House from 1983 to 1995. “As someone who has a farm in Kansas, the crop insurance program is important to all producers in Kansas and is perhaps the most successful farm bill program.”
The three other U.S. House members and two U.S. senators from Kansas are Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann of the 1st District who also serves on the House Agriculture Committee.
Beam, the state’s agriculture secretary, said the scope of the farm economy wasn’t fully appreciated in some circles. He said there were 72 sectors of agriculture contributing $85 billion to the state’s economy. He said 13% of the state’s labor force was engaged in agricultural occupations.