Final Review of the Senate Farm Bill and How It Affects You
Before we switch our focus over to the House, we need to do a quick run-through of the Farm Bill that made its way through the Senate over the past few weeks. With such a huge piece of legislation, it’s difficult to fully wrap one’s head around it; we are lucky to have the hotshots […]
Farm Bill passes Senate Yesterday, on to the House
The Senate officially passed its version of the US Farm Bill yesterday, throwing the ball in the court of the House of Representatives. We want to thank everyone who took actions – whether it was sending emails, signing petitions or making phone calls – to put pressure on their Senators. Due to the high levels […]
Senate to pass its Farm Bill draft on Monday
A quick follow up on the announcement earlier this week that the Senate would be wrapping up debates on Farm Bill amendments: The Senate approved the change, passing the cloture yesterday morning. This means, essentially, that there was enough debate and not enough consensus to the point that a super-majority of Senators decided to cut […]
Farm Bill Update – Senate moves to cut debate
As the growing season moves into the height of summer, even the most politically-conscience of us start to get overwhelmed by the day-to-day activities on the farm. Unfortunately for us, it seems now’s the time that things are really moving in DC! Since it’s been a little while since our last Farm Bill update, here […]
Farm Bill Update – the Committee Drafts are in
Last week we told you that the Senate and House Agriculture Committees were having their respective committee markup sessions, where the committees wrote a basic draft of the Farm Bill. Here’s a quick recap on the process: the Chairs and Ranking Members of each committee putting together an initial draft and presenting it to the […]
This week the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are working on the 2013 Farm Bill!
Things are really picking up with the new Farm Bill. After the painful slowness of last year, it’s surprising to see Congress actually building real momentum into writing the new five-year bill. Here is the latest news from Washington: Last week, the House and Senate Agriculture Committees released draft farm bills. Now, members of the […]
Farm Bill News – Mark-Up Starts Next Week!
It’s been a long wait, but things are starting to move on the next five-year Farm Bill. As a quick refresher, the Farm Bill, which normally is written every five years and dictates all federal spending on agricultural programs, expired last fall. Thanks to hyper-partisanship, Congress was unable to put together a successor bill all […]
Young Farmers in the House at NSAC winter strategy meeting
Last month, the Young Farmers’ Coalition took part in the semi-annual planning meeting of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). NYFC is a member group of NSAC, which advocates nationally for agricultural reform and also coordinates the advocacy efforts of nearly 100 member organizations. The winter meeting – this most recent one held in Haines […]
For Better or Worse, a Farm Bill – A Quick Wrap-up
At long last, the Farm Bill race of 2012 is over. The past week has been a flurry of activity in Congress, as the looming fiscal cliff spurred Washington to action. Despite the public attention on the Farm Bill over the past year, the conclusion to the long drama came not in a fiery showdown […]
On New Years Day, an End to the 2012 Farm Bill Season
Well, the Farm Bill race of 2012 is over, although the new bill is only a nine-month extension tacked onto the far larger fiscal cliff bill. The final vote last night in the house was 257-167, with support from a large majority of Democrats and 36% support from Republicans. In the end, the landslide of […]