Congress passes extension to 7-year-old farm bill

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - After months of pleading for a new farm bill, Congress enacted a one-year extension to the current seven-year-old legislation.

“You’re basically extending the 2018 bill, and the prices and everything in effect in 2018 are not what we’re currently dealing with,” farmer Brandon Vail said. “What restaurants, what grocery stores do you know where you’re paying the same prices you were in 2018? Zero.”

Farmers across the country agree the current farm bill, which was first introduced in 2018, is now outdated.

“This is basically a short-term fix, that’s what it is. We’re thankful for it, but we want Congress to work and not just bottleneck everything,” David Smith, a farmer from DeRidder, said.

Recent farm bills have faced legislative hurdles, such as insufficient votes to pass the House floor, presidential vetoes, and delays ultimately resulting in short-term extensions.

On Dec. 21, 2024, before the 118th Congress disbanded, a one-year extension to the bill was passed. Apart from the extension, Congress also recently passed the American Relief Act of 2025, which will keep the government funded through March 14. The act contains $9.8 billion in market relief payments for twenty covered crops and nearly $21 billion for disaster relief.

“This isn’t something that’s done every year, this is more of an ad-hoc disaster program,” Vail said. “There’s $31 billion that’s earmarked for agriculture. Around $21 billion of that is earmarked for disaster payment. So, hurricanes, droughts, floods, wildfires, things of that nature.”

Vail explains that when disasters like hurricanes Helene and Milton happen, farmers aren’t able to just get back to planting. That disaster relief money is to help those farmers get back on their feet. Market relief payments typically assist farmers with costs such as handling, packaging, labor, and more.

Producers are currently facing a decline in crop prices, while total production costs remain elevated.

“Input costs have gone up. Overall you didn’t have a high price to sell your crop at. There were issues both on the export side and on the domestic markets. Also having a strong dollar really hurts your export markets. So you don’t have nearly the level of exports you normally would,” Vail said.

Both Vail and Smith think a new Farm Bill will be passed before the end of 2025. Either way, they say they will press on.

“Farmers are pretty much eternal optimists, you have to be. You’re not going to just throw seed in the ground every year. You’ve got to kind of have hope and prayer on it. So, it’s what you deal with,” Vail said.

Economic aid will come 90 days after passage, which was Dec. 21.

Congress now faces two principal expiration dates: Sep. 30 and Dec. 31. Expiration of a farm bill on Sep. 30 matters for programs with fiscal year authorizations including nutrition, conservation, and other agricultural programs.