ND senators praise farm bill, seek House action

Both of North Dakota’s U.S. senators urged the House to quickly take action on the five-year extension to the Farm Bill that passed the Senate on Thursday.

Sixteen Republicans crossed the aisle to vote for the extension, which passed by a 64-35 vote. Five Democrats voted no. North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven and Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad both voted yes. Hoeven and Conrad are both members of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Hoeven, in a press release following the vote, praised the Senate bill and its more than $23 billion in deficit reduction.

“We’ve passed a good, strong farm bill that will help producers manage risk, create jobs and reduce the deficit and debt, but we still have work before us,” Hoeven said

The Senate-passed legislation includes a supplemental coverage option that adds to crop insurance. Farmers can utilize the option to purchase a supplemental policy beyond their individual farm-based policy.

The legislation also has a program that covers multiple-year losses. The program works with farm insurance to cover between 11 percent and 21 percent of a farmer’s historic five-year average revenue, based on price and yield. The Senate bill also eliminates the direct payment program to farmers.

Conrad stated in a release that it’s critical that the House pass a bill and have the differences worked out quickly in conference committee before the current bill expires in September. He said the cost of the Farm Bill is small when compared to total federal spending.

“The fact is, Farm Bill spending is only a tiny sliver of the overall federal budget. The farm safety net provided in this legislation will be one-third of 1 percent of total federal spending,” Conrad said.

Both candidates running to replace Conrad in the Senate also weighed in on the legislation’s passage.

North Dakota Democratic Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp released a statement praising the Senate bill while calling on the House to follow the Senate’s lead.

“One day after House leaders put the brakes on the House Farm Bill and stepped on the gas on election year political games, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan Farm Bill that slashes the deficit and maintains crucial protections

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