Iowans press Hinson on status of passing new farm bill, GOP infighting

ATKINS — Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson said she remains hopeful Congress will pass new legislation yet this year reauthorizing federal spending for programs supporting U.S. farmers and ranchers, including commodity support and conservation programs and crop insurance.

Hinson fielded questions from a group of roughly 50 Iowans on topics ranging from federal spending to energy and agriculture policy to climate change and Social Security during a town hall Wednesday in Atkins.

The Marion Republican began the hourlong public event touting her work and priorities in Congress. That includes her efforts to try to make federal tax cuts enacted in 2017 permanent for individuals and small businesses, expand the federal child tax credit and legislation that would reduce funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by 39 percent; defund diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at federal agencies; cut funding to the long-understaffed Internal Revenue Service; and boost border security, including continued border wall construction.

Hinson was among a group of 61 Republican House members who wrote newly-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., urging swift passage of a new farm bill.

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“Simply put, farm and food security is national security,” the Republican lawmakers wrote in their letter. “For a mere one-fifth of 1 percent of federal spending, the farm safety net, including commodity support programs and crop insurance, provides farmers and ranchers the foundation they need to manage risk, pass their farm or ranch down to the next generation, and continue producing the highest quality, lowest cost food, fuel, fiber, and forestry products in the world.”

A new report released Wednesday finds the federal government is spending billions on crop failures caused by extreme weather — and it’s growing only more expensive.

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Crop insurance payouts surpassed $118 billion nationally between 2001 and 2022 for damage caused by extreme weather like drought, heat and floods.

Hinson said protecting commodity support and crop insurance programs in the next farm bill “is of the utmost importance.”

“We need to have a strong safety net in place, because a stable food supply is of inherent public interest to our county and to our competitiveness” globally, she told the crowd. “So I think that there is broad bipartisan support for maintaining those programs and making sure that still exists.”

The sprawling legislative package that’s reauthorized every five years also supports agriculture research, rural development, conservation, SNAP benefits — once called food stamps — and more.

The current Farm Bill expired Sept. 30. However, expiration of the legislation will not truly be felt until the beginning of next year, when some farm policies would revert to controls on production and costly price supports adopted in the 1930s and 1940s. Other programs, such as crop insurance and food assistance programs, are permanently authorized and not affected by the lapse, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Passage of a new farm bill has been held up by Congress’ inability to agree on federal spending limits in order to avoid a looming government shutdown and House Republican infighting that led to the historic ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California. The power struggle between McCarthy and hard-line GOP lawmakers left the chamber essentially paralyzed for three weeks as the Republican conference tried and failed to coalesce behind a new leader before ultimately uniting around Johnson.

Hinson was asked how Johnson plans to deal with party infighting and the rule he inherited from McCarthy that leaves him vulnerable to being ousted.

Hinson said she’s had conversations with House colleagues about the need to revisit its rules and mechanisms for ousting a speaker.

In order to appease the hard-line House Freedom Caucus and secure the speakership, one of the major concessions McCarthy made was to reinstate a procedural mechanism called the motion to vacate the chair, which allows a single member to call a vote to oust the Speaker.

Hinson said she supports a mechanism to hold leadership accountable, but favors raising the threshold to trigger removal of the House speaker to a certain percentage of members.

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, seven other Republicans and all the House Democrats voted to remove McCarthy, making it the first time in U.S. history a House speaker was ousted by such a motion.

“I hope some people learned a very serious lesson about the damage that did not only to the institution, but to the country as well,” said Hinson, who supported retaining McCarthy as speaker and later backed Johnson.

Aron Brecht, food donor manager at Hawkeye Area Community Action Program’s (HACAP) Food Reservoir, asked Hinson about the status of funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program included in the farm bill.

Brecht, speaking with The Gazette, said the program is integral to the food bank’s operations as food insecurity increases and sustainable access to local produce becomes more critical to meet the needs of families, with high inflation and other economic factors contributing to rising grocery, energy and housing costs.

“There is an increased need throughout your charitable food system,” he said. “In our last quarter, we went from 100,000 individuals (receiving food assistance) to about 130,000. … We got a lot of support through the USDA emergency food assistance program. It’s been increased in the last year so we’re happy about that, but we want to see the funding stay there so we can continue to serve our neighbors in need in Eastern Iowa.”

Hinson said she is “a big supporter of the programs” HACAP offers, “and the last thing I want is Iowans to go hungry.”

As for the farm bill, Hinson said “it’s probably next on our agenda after we get through appropriations bills.” She added that she has not “heard a whole lot of red flags from anyone on food assistance programs in the farm bill.”

House Republican lawmakers, however, have proposed new work requirements on food stamp recipients for those ages 50 to 54 as part of a debt ceiling deal. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that would put nearly 750,000 older adults, who may be more likely to struggle to find a job, at risk of losing food assistance.

House Republicans have also proposed cuts in spending for food assistance programs for children and seniors as part of the agriculture appropriations bill for fiscal year 2024. The proposed bill included a $32 billion decrease in mandatory SNAP spending from FY23 levels due to the end of increased pandemic-era benefits and a decrease in participation rates.

“During the pandemic, we saw a huge amount of increase everywhere across the board so we’re just trying to make sure those numbers are right where we are right now,“ Hinson said. ”Our goal is to get the farm bill, hopefully, on the floor in December. If, we are not able to get there, my guess is we’ll be looking at an extension of some kind.“

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