The Senate voted 85-11 to extend current government funding levels to avoid a government shutdown and to implement a one-year extension to the 2018 Farm Bill, which includes a $10 billion farm aid package in the year-end continuing resolution.
Community banking advocates celebrated the passage of federal legislation intended to provide targeted relief to farmers struggling from the impact of circumstances beyond their control. The measure includes language intended to support farmers who have suffered economic losses due to adverse weather conditions and low commodity prices in 2023 and 2024. It authorizes almost $31 billion for agricultural aid, including $21 billion for the Emergency Relief Program for agricultural losses.
“ICBA and the nation’s community banks applaud Congress for passing a continuing resolution (H.R. 10545) to keep the government running, to extend the farm bill for one year, and to provide $10 billion in economic assistance for our nation’s farmers and ranchers,” Independent Community Bankers of America President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said in a statement. “Importantly, the bill also provides necessary funds for disaster assistance for many hurting communities adversely impacted by recent hurricanes and other weather-related disasters.”
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) issued a statement after voting in favor of the legislation.
“While the passage of the bill is obviously important to avoid a government shutdown and of course to pass some priorities for North Dakota, it had better be the last time we do it this way,” Cramer said. “This is not how you should run the legislative branch, and our constituents deserve a lot better than this incompetence and this dysfunction that we’ve seen these last few days and hours. I look forward to new leadership in Congress when Republicans become the majority in the Senate and Donald Trump occupies the White House.”
Romero Rainey wrote a letter to Congress expressing support for a similar version of the bipartisan legislation earlier in the month.
“The FARM Act would offer targeted relief to those farmers who have suffered crop losses due to the impact of adverse weather conditions and low commodity prices below the cost of production,” Romero Rainey wrote. “This legislation will assist producers who have suffered economic losses and, as a result, may be unable to show a positive cashflow on their operations, making it difficult for these producers to qualify for bank loans. The payments this legislation provides to affected producers will allow many of them to access the credit they need to continue their operations.”
The bill also includes $2 billion set aside for livestock losses due to drought, wildfires, and floods, $828 million for the Emergency Conservation Program to rehabilitate damaged farmland, and $920 million for the Emergency Watershed Protection Program to address flood and erosion damages. The legislation also directs $362.5 million toward rural development disaster assistance to help rebuild infrastructure in rural communities and allocates $220 million in state block grants to support disaster recovery efforts.