A lawmaker from Florida believes there could be movement on the Farm Bill in March. Congresswoman Kat Cammack told Agriculture of America Tuesday the farm bill has been a frustrating process.

“We are currently operating on a basic reauthorization of the ‘18 Farm Bill, and we were hoping to have it completed last year, but of course shenanigans in the House prevented us from getting that across the finish line. So, as it stands right now, we’re looking at mid-March being our timeline to have draft text presented, a full markup in committee, and then hopefully getting it on the House floor and across to the Senate.” 

Cammack says she is focused on AGI, or Adjusted Gross Income.

“With the consolidation that we have had happen all across the country, these small mom and pop operations, they have to continually grow at higher and higher levels and really scale up operations just to make ends meet and government hasn’t kept up with that in terms of disaster relief or caps on certain programs. So, it’s really becoming a tough situation for a lot of our family farms. So, making adjustments on AGI, really protecting that safety net for people who have skin in the game and that risk in the ground.” 

Cammack adds tying nutrition program to American production is important to her as well.

“For the $124 billion that we spend every single year in SNAP and EBT, only $26 million, 26 million out of 124 billion with a B is required to be American products. If it’s an American taxpayer who’s financing it, it should be an American farmer that’s growing it. We want to really see a change in tying the produce that is consumed through the nutritional programs be American product, and I think that would be a really strong and effective lifeline to our farmers and our producers.”