The expiration date on the current Farm Bill is now over a year ago.

It’s a piece of legislation that touches many, many areas of American life and sets priorities for areas from commodities, conservation, and nutrition to rural development, forestry and energy.

One of Congressman Glenn Thompson’s main objectives this term is finalizing the Farm Bill as chair of the House Agriculture Committee.

The last five-year Farm Bill expired at the end of Sept. 2023 and an extension was enacted to extend that to the end of Sept. 2024.

The House version of the Farm Bill – the Farm Food and National Security Act of 2024 – is over 900 pages long.

What are the consequences from that bill being over a year late?

“The impact is we’re not able to legislate to the new innovations that we need to have,” Thompson said in an interview with the Times Observer.

He said the aim has been to negotiate the bill in a “tripartisan way” – Democrats, Republicans and an effort “to bring the voice of American agriculture and rural America.”

“The Farm Bill is everything rural,” he stressed.

So he outlined how the House bill was negotiated “from the outside in” – bringing in outside voices from across the country rather than the legislation originating in Washington. That included close to 100 listening sessions in 40 states and a territory, he said.

“The opportunity we’re missing is all those things we learned (we need) to address,” Thompson said. “What we’re missing is the opportunity to implement the policy that America needs.”

He specifically put risk management issues and workforce issues into that box and accused Senate Democrats of playing games with the bill.

“I’m happy to say they’re no longer doing that,” he added. “(We’ve) had better discussions over the last month.”

Thompson credited commodity groups who came to Washington and “visited every office,” bringing bankers who are outlining farm financing concerns and said a meeting of the “four corners” – Thompson, Sen. Ag Chair Debby Stabenow (D-Michigan) and ranking members John Boozman (R-Arkansas) in the Senate and Rep. David Scott (D-Georgia) was held recently.

“I laid it out,” Thompson said. “We’ve got to get this done…. I’m very pleased with the outcome of that meeting. There is a commitment to get this done.”

Last month, Boozman made a similar appeal, calling for a “timely and urgent response” to emergency farm assistance, according to a Senate committee release which described the Farm Bill talks as “stalled.”

“The next farm bill is the appropriate place to make the necessary long-term corrections to our farm safety net, but farmers need timely support addressing 2024 losses as they enter the winter months when they make planting decisions and secure financing for the upcoming crop year,” Boozman said. “We must redouble our efforts to pass a farm bill, before the end of the calendar year, that meets this moment – one that provides the support our farmers desperately need to stay in business.

“I am committed to sitting down with my counterparts for as long as it takes to hash out a deal that our members can support.”

Thompson said his only issue he won’t move on is a “safety net for farming and ranchers.

“Everything else I don’t have any red lines. I said that for over a year,” he continued. “I was missing a partner willing to negotiate in good faith. Part of that is that Democrats were playing the odds on the election.”

The House version was passed out of committee in April “with some bipartisan” support.

“(There are) very few bills constructed in a more bipartisan or tripartisan way,” he said. “We had four measures led just by Democrats. I vetted them…. Those 40 measures helped to put the farm back in the Farm Bill. They were good. They’re in.

He said he’s hoping to “have a lot of issues resolved by mid-October,” noting that negotiations continue on the staff and director level.

That would set the stage for a Nov. vote.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the farm bill “is an omnibus, multiyear law that sets the stage for the nation’s food and farm systems.

“It includes multiple titles, or sections, that intersect policy areas including conservation, rural energy development, nutrition assistance and aid to new and beginning farmers and ranchers.”

Per the Congressional Research Service, that bill spans multiple years and “governs an array of agricultural and food programs. It provides an opportunity for policymakers to comprehensively and periodically address agricultural and food issues.”