MORGAN, Minn. — Members of Minnesota’s U.S. House contingent discussed the farm safety net, budget reconciliation, what’s happening with passing a “skinny farm bill,” trade, nutrition funding and more in a forum on the first day of Minnesota Farmfest.
The forum, titled “Developing a Reliable Ag Policy Safety Net,” was moderated by Mark Dorenkamp of Brownfield Ag News and was preceded by comments by Stephen Vaden, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. On the panel were Reps. Angie Craig, Brad Finstad, Michelle Fischbach and Pete Stauber.
The four representatives largely discussed the budget reconciliation — or the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — act passed by Congress earlier this summer. The bill contained many components typically included in a farm bill.
Craig, the lone Democrat on the panel, is the ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee. Kicking off comments from the panel, she first listed things she liked in the bill, like crop insurance improvements, updated reference prices, and tax provisions like the 199(a) stepped-up basis . But she didn’t hold back on what she saw as problems with the process used.
“The big problem that I have with the reconciliation package is, it should have been done in the farm bill,” she said.
She noted the nutrition title of a traditional farm bill had been “gutted” by the package and that other priorities, like the farm loan program that will expire in September, access to the Rural Energy for America Program, specialty crop programs and more, couldn’t be dealt with in the reconciliation bill and will have to be legislated separately, in what she and others on the panel dubbed a “skinny farm bill.”
“All of that could have, would have been done in a traditional farm bill,” Craig said.
Her harshest comments were for how the bill cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid , saying the moves will hurt rural communities.
Finstad, Fischbach and Stauber generally agreed with the things Craig liked about the bill but also defended the things she disliked, most notably the SNAP cuts. They noted explosive growth in the funding put into SNAP in recent years, along with an error rate that adds up to billions of dollars that haven’t gone to feeding people.
Finstad, a farmer, said the budget reconciliation rebalanced farm programs with the nutrition programs that have dominated past farm bills.
“We finally put the farmer back in the farm bill,” he said.
Fischbach focused much of her time on the tax components of the bill, including the 199(a) provision for estate taxes and the expansion of the 168(k) provision on depreciation to include ag properties. She acknowledged that the bill wasn’t perfect and that more needs to be done on the 45(z) provision on renewable fuels and on sustainable aviation fuel.
“The good in this bill is overwhelming,” she said.
Other priorities
While the panel focused largely on the budget reconciliation bill, the representatives also discussed trade and tariffs, the Make America Healthy Again Commission, gray wolves, conservation, California’s Proposition 12 law on animal welfare and its impacts on agriculture nationwide, and other points related to ag policy.
On trade and tariffs, there was a general consensus that more attention is needed on trade and that recently announced trade deals were signs of optimism for agriculture. However, Craig noted the general “chaos” of the past six months and the impact of that on consumers and the markets.
The topic of the MAHA Commission and the work of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy brought perhaps the most agreement from the panel, with Craig and Finstad deriding Kennedy’s methods as unscientific and harmful to agriculture.
“I don’t want to listen to Robert Kennedy on anything,” Craig said.
“We’re in bizarre times when a Kennedy is disliked by Republicans and Democrats,” Finstad said.
On the MAHA subject and others, Finstad repeatedly said agriculture needs to go “on the offense” to explain the industry’s needs, priorities and successes.
“It’s our opportunity to rise to the occasion,” he said.
USDA update
Before the panel began, Vaden discussed what’s going on at USDA. He said the agency has paid out $1.46 billion to more than 255,000 farmers since July 10 as part of the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program, for weather disasters in 2023 and 2024. The agency also has paid out $8 billion to more than 571,000 farmers for the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program for economic assistance due to low commodity prices.
Vaden said the simplified application process has helped expedite relief. He said his own brother reported getting money directly deposited into his account within three business days of signing his application at his local Farm Service Agency office.
Vaden lauded recent trade deals with the European Union, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines and the United Kingdom and said agricultural trade is at the forefront of the discussions on trade.
He also cheered the work of the Department of Justice on fighting back against California’s Prop 12 and explained that the economics of living in Washington, D.C., was at the heart of a recent move to establish USDA hubs in Raleigh, North Carolina, Indianapolis, Fort Collins, Colorado, Salt Lake City and Kansas City, Missouri, rather than keep as many employees in Washington.
