Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman says significant progress has been made on the next farm bill, but key policy issues remain. “We were able to pass about 85 percent of the farm bill in reconciliation last year, and we were able to pay for the increase in the crop insurance benefits that we were able to put in,” Boozman said. “In the last Congress, we thought that if we could get $20 billion in a farm bill, that would be wonderful. With the help of Senator Hoeven, we were able to get $68 billion, which was truly a home run.” Despite that funding, more is needed. “This is a generational crisis. If you look at the last three years, when you look at row crop production, we’ve had the biggest loss of income in history,” Boozman said. “Unless we do something different, provide new markets, work on the input cost and things like that, we’re going to be in the same situation as we were this last year.” Click here to listen to Jamie Dickerman’s exclusive interview with Chairman Boozman.
