About 500 people turned out for the Farm Bill Now rally near the Capitol on Wednesday, which featured members of Congress as well as representatives from a number of the nearly 100 organizations who make up the coalition calling for a comprehensive, five year food, farm and jobs legislation before the current bill expires at the end of this month.
The event was co-hosted by American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman and National Farmers Union president Roger Johnson. “Perhaps never in the history of farm legislation have so many diverse farmer and rancher voices joined together for such a common call for action on a farm bill,” said Stallman. “We gather here under a banner adorned with three words. FARM. BILL. NOW. And we are here to raise our voices toward Capitol Hill.”
House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson told the rally that there’s no good reason why the House has not yet brought the farm bill passed out of his committee to the floor for a vote. “People say we don’t have the votes, I don’t agree with that,” he said. “We just need the opportunity to have this bill come up and work on it.”
However, Peterson believes that if nothing changes between now and the end of the month, the bill will be put off indefinitely. “This rally is a good starting point, but what we need is 100-200 calls from people in their districts to these members. If you don’t do that, we’re not going to get a farm bill.”
Peterson praised Senate Ag Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow for getting a bill passed by the Senate, and she gave credit to her entire committee for working together to get it done. “We could pay for the national deficit if we had a dollar for every person that said we couldn’t get this done,” Stabenow said. “There’s no reason this farm bill can’t get passed by the House. You just have to want to get it done.”
Stabenow stressed only 18 days are left before the current farm bill expires. On the first day Congress was back in Washington on Monday, she went to the floor of the Senate urging the House leadership to pass a bill in that time. Watch that speech from YouTube.