American Soybean Association--Stimulus Proposal, Ag Provisions

Feb 15, 2021

The House Agriculture Committee held a lengthy business meeting yesterday to officially organize and consider agricultural-related provisions of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan.

The stimulus consideration process was distinctly different than the path of past COVID relief packages. The congressional process of budget reconciliation is being used as a parliamentary tool to fast-track the stimulus legislation with a simple majority vote in the House and Senate.

Chairman David Scott (D-GA) described the stimulus provisions as a way to address needs that were not included in the December year-end COVID package. That December package included more than $11 billion in ag relief, including supplemental Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) payments, which has not yet been implemented by USDA

The stimulus provisions approved by the committee on a party line vote include:

· $1 billion in assistance to and support for community-based organizations and 1890 Land Grant and other minority-serving institutions that work with Black farmers and other farmers of color on land access, financial training, heirs property issues, training the next generation and access to education

· Farm Loan Assistance for Black farmers and other farmers of color

· Extending 15% SNAP benefit increase through September 30, 2021

· $37 million to the Commodity Supplemental Food Program to fill a gap that has grown as food for this program has become scarcer during the pandemic

· $500 million in Community Facility Program funds to help rural hospitals and local communities broaden access to COVID-19 vaccines & food assistance

· $3.6 billion for the Secretary of Agriculture to continue to help the food and ag sector supply chains

· $100 million in overtime fee relief to small meat and poultry processors currently grappling with COVID-19-related backlogs

· $800 million for the Food for Peace program, including for purchases of U.S.-grown crops used in international humanitarian aid

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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