Congress Passes CR with Supplemental Aid for Louisiana Farmers
By Andy Brown
Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation
As you may have heard, Congress was finally successful late into Friday night in passing a Continuing Resolution that included many priorities we worked very hard to achieve. The House passed the measure 366-34-1 with all Louisiana members voting in favor. The Senate passed the resolution 85-11, Cassidy supporting and Kennedy opposing.
This resolution was the vehicle to achieve 3 big things:
Extending the Farm Bill to avoid reverting to permanent law.
$21B+ for natural disaster assistance for 2023 & 2024.
$10B for economic assistance for 2024 crops operating at a USDA calculated loss.
We will put together a more comprehensive breakdown of the economic assistance in coming days, working with Dr. Michael Deliberto from the LSU AgCenter and our contacts in Washington, D.C.. Stay tuned for that.
For now - we want to say thank you. Since October, you have helped us send 4,550 messages to our Louisiana delegation urging the need for this assistance. I assure you that made a difference. Last Friday (12/13) we were on the doorstep of being left out of any assistance altogether. But thanks to your collective voice, you equipped members like Julia Letlow and Clay Higgins with the backing to stand in the gap and require agriculture be included for assistance to receive their yes vote on any resolution that would be offered. This also implored Speaker Johnson and Majority Leader Scalise cover to cut through political demands and land the support of the next President, and others, to get a package done.
Plenty of things fell by the wayside in these negotiations. But agriculture was really the last man standing to get special assistance through this package. While it is not going to make anyone whole, and even may be short of what some need to stay in business, we will celebrate this as the largest single ad hoc direct aid into agriculture that we have ever achieved. We know that need is very real.
We will also put together one last Voter Voice Call to Action following the holidays to say thank you. We know there is much work to be done to get a new Farm Bill achieved, reform labor laws and wages, and keep pesticides available in your toolbox. But for now, I hope you're proud of the farmer led effort from our grassroots that is still impactful in our nation's capital. Merry Christmas and we look forward to more Farm Bureau proud moments in 2025.