Legislation includes Klobuchar’s legislation that would provide certainty to farmers and ranchers, create an animal disease and disaster program, and support dairy farmers

Klobuchar is a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee 

WASHINGTON— U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, today announced that the Farm Bill has been released with strong bipartisan support. The bill includes Klobuchar’s provisions that would provide certainty to farmers and ranchers, create an animal disease and disaster program, and support dairy farmers. The bill also protects and expands crop insurance to improve access for beginning farmers, and preserves a strong safety net for farmers and maintains important access to food assistance for families in need while saving millions of taxpayer dollars by cracking down on fraud and abuse.

“This is a good Farm Bill that is a result of Democrats and Republicans working together and is critical to moving our economy forward. I worked hard to ensure there is a strong safety net for farmers, important conservation provisions, legislation to protect our farm animals from harm and protect our farmers from economic hardship, and support for dairy farmers. I will continue to push this Farm Bill forward to ensure our rural communities have the resources and certainty they need to grow and thrive,” Klobuchar said.

Klobuchar Priorities Included in the Farm Bill:

  • Creates an animal disease and disaster response program that would help to adequately address risks to animal health, livestock export markets, and industry economic stability. Recent animal disease outbreaks like Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) impacted hundreds of thousands of farms in the U.S. and resulted in hundreds of millions in damages.
  • Builds on the dairy improvements that Senator Klobuchar helped include in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 by investing an additional $100 million to improve affordability and flexibility for small dairy producers.
  • Includes the bipartisan Agriculture Data Act Klobuchar introduced with Senator John Thune (R-SD) to improve agriculture data research of conservation practices to help farmers reduce risk and increase profitability. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) currently manages and stores valuable producer data, but the data can be better utilized to inform producer understanding about which conservation practices reduce risk and improve profitability.
  • Protects Rural Energy for America (REAP) funding and makes improvements to the dairy program.
  • Includes a provision from a bipartisan bill that Klobuchar supported with Senator John Thune (R-SD) to fix a loophole in the conservation “sodsaver program.”  Last year, Klobuchar introduced the bipartisan American Prairie Conservation Act, which would save more than $50 million over ten years and disincentivize the conversion of native sod to cropland by closing a crop insurance yield substitution loophole in all 50 states. Klobuchar successfully included a sodsaver provision in the 2014 Farm Bill.

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