The National Farmers Union (NFU) Board of Directors opposes the changes to the Farm Bill through the 2016 Omnibus Appropriations Act and adopted the following resolution:
“The National Farmers Union Board of Directors calls upon the U.S. Congress to pass a fiscal year 2016 appropriations act which does not make changes to 2014 Farm Bill spending levels," the resolution said. "The current farm bill is a five-year agreement that should provide policy certainty to agriculture for its duration. We strongly object to any legislative changes reopening the law in any fashion. Such action would undermine certainty at a time when farm income is rapidly eroding. [The U.S. Department of Agriculture] has forecast a decline for the second consecutive year. Net farm income is expected to fall to $55.9 billion for 2015, which would be a decline of 54.7 percent over the past two years. Congress has attempted to reopen the farm bill four times this year. The NFU Board of Directors strongly opposes such action and calls on Congress to allow the safety net to operate as designed for the benefit of agriculture and rural America.”
After the resolution passed, NFU President Roger Johnson praised the efforts of those who supported it.
"Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, farm leaders, family farmers and ranchers invested years of hard work and compromise that finally led to the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill," he said. "This farm bill was meant to provide five years of policy certainty and adequate risk management tools for farmers and ranchers who face increasingly volatile markets and weather conditions.”
Alerts Sign-up