The Farm Bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation that Congress considers, supporting agriculture producers and helping to ensure families have food on the table. Within this bill are also vital conservation programs that strengthen habitat, improve water quality, and promote more sustainable landscapes – providing a lifeline for fish and wildlife. Encompassing food, fiber, and fuel production, nutrition assistance, agricultural research and trade promotion, conservation, and forestry, this bill is a must-pass. Despite that, we are now nearly two years past the initial expiration of the 2018 Farm Bill. Congress has managed to limp these programs along by extending them for one year (twice), but we are once again nearing a September 30th expiration of key Farm Bill programs, including the Conservation Reserve Program.
In recent years, Congress has used a process known as budget reconciliation to advance policy that would typically be part of a broader bipartisan Farm Bill. Although this has led to major investments in programs hunters and anglers care about, the budget reconciliation process has strict restrictions on policy changes, and its partisan nature tends to make accomplishments less durable.
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