Lawmakers Still Considering Additional Farmer Aid

By Carah Hart

Brownfield

The co-director of the Ag and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University says Congress is still talking about more farmer assistance.

“I think the how much and the how are still open questions.”

Bart Fischer tells Brownfield “I know numbers that have been floated around, north of $15 billion. And so, I think we’re talking in that neighborhood, north of that amount, but the exact amount I’ll leave up to them as they sort of negotiate their way through it.”

Fischer says there seems to be some fatigue in Congress regarding ad-hoc farmer aid, but farmer losses are great, and the recent ad-hoc assistance only covers one-third to one-half of those losses, which means farmers need the help.

He says U.S. Senators John Boozman from Arkansas and John Hoeven from North Dakota continue to move forward with a solution that could be included in a supplemental spending bill for the Iran war.

Brownfield interviewed Fischer at the Abner Womack Conference in mid-Missouri.