NEWS FROM THE HILL

In Montana, agriculture is more than our number one economic driver, it’s part of our way of life. Montana is home to thousands of family farm and ranch operations and ag businesses.

I’ve heard from many Montana farmers and ranchers who are worried about their livelihoods being threatened by foreign countries buying up American farmland. I share your concerns.

Foreign adversaries, like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea should not be allowed to purchase American farmland or agricultural businesses–it’s a threat to our national security and our Montana way of life.

As a third generation Montana farmer, I know that food security is national security.

If you control food, you control people –and that’s why we need to make sure our adversaries are kept far away from our food supply.

Countries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea don’t respect our American way of life. Whether that’s by violating U.S. airspace, or spreading disinformation over social media – they will do everything in their power to weaken the United States.

For too long that’s included attempts to purchase American farmland and agribusinesses – but with bipartisan support from my friend, Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, we’re putting a stop to it.

Congress should be doing everything it can to reduce America’s dependency on countries like China. That’s why I’m cosponsoring two bills to ensure adversarial countries can’t buy up Montana farm and ranchland. I’m supporting the Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security (PASS) Act and the Foreign Adversary Risk Management (FARM) Act to protect Montana and our growing agriculture economy.

As your voice in the United States Senate, I will always work to protect the interests of hardworking Montana farmers and ranchers and ensure Montana maintains its rich legacy of agriculture for generations to come.

Last month we introduced legislation that will outright ban China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from investing in, purchasing, leasing or otherwise acquiring U.S. farmland. It will also appoint the Secretary of Agriculture to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), so that we prevent our foreign adversaries from making investments that would threaten our domestic food supply.

Folks in Montana know how dangerous countries like China are, and with my Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security (PASS) Act we’re going to cut them out of our food chain.

Montana has some of the best farmland in the world, and together we’ll make sure that it stays in Montanan hands for generations to come.

The 118th Congress was set to be sworn in shortly after noon on January 3.

The Senate started business right on time. However, the House had a lengthy holdup due to a drawn-out debate and election for Speaker, which took several days. After Republicans took control of the House in the 2022 Midterms, the GOP nominated Rep. Kevin McCarthy from Bakersfield, California, to serve as the 55th Speaker of the House. Rep. McCarthy had served as the minority leader of the House Republican Conference since 2019 while Democrats controlled the chamber.

In late December, Congress finished up a busy term with one last piece of legislative business: passing the year-long omnibus spending bill.

H.R.2617 – Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 is a $1.7 trillion dollar package that funds the federal government through Sept. 30, 2023. The omnibus boosts defense spending by $76 billion to $858 billion, and nondefense spending in the bill totals $773 billion. The Senate passed the Omnibus on a 68-29 vote, while the House margin was 225201.

The Omnibus includes a number of NFU priorities, including:

• $5 million increase for oversight and enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act.

• Full funding for the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN) at $10 million.

• Strong funding for the Rural Cooperative Development

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Grants (RCDG) to support cooperative development centers and the Value-Added Producer Grant program.

• $364 million for the ReConnect Program, to fulfill its mission to address broadband and high-speed internet connectivity challenges in rural America.

• Nearly $950 million for conservation programs and conservation technical assistance; $14 million for the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI).

• A year-long extension of Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting.

The bill includes a continuation of recent disaster ad hoc disaster assistance, with $3.74 billion in relief for farmers and ranchers who suffered losses of revenue, quality, or production losses for a variety of crops and livestock incurred in the 2022 calendar year. Of that topline figure, up to $500 million is set aside for producers of livestock for losses incurred due to drought or wildlife.

The bill also includes modified versions of legislation aimed at addressing climate change in agriculture: the Growing Climate Solutions Act (GCSA), which NFU endorsed, and the SUSTAINS Act (see Division HH-Agriculture, sections 201 and 202, respectively in the bill text). GCSA, named the “Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and ThirdParty Verifier Program” in the bill, directs USDA to play a role in evaluating private carbon and other environmental credit markets for agriculture, with the goal of facilitating farmer participation in these markets, facilitating technical assistance to farmers for their participation, and ensuring farmers are fairly compensated in these markets. SUSTAINS, named the “Acceptance and

Use of Private Funds for PublicPrivate Partnerships” in the bill, modifies existing CCC authority to accept and use contributions from private entities to fund conservation activities through USDA programs.

Additionally, the bill includes the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act, to update the premerger filing fee structure, which has not been changed since 2001. The bill would increase filing fees for larger mergers and index increases in those fees to inflation.

The Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act and the Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act were not included in the final omnibus bill. The principles behind these bills could very well be part of the 2023 Farm Bill. Congress also failed to enact meaningful farm labor reform, but NFU will continue to advocate for further efforts in the 118th Congress.

The abovementioned delays in the House of Representatives due to the election of a speaker had some real-world impacts, as the first Farm Bill Listening Session of the new year was postponed nearly one week. But on January 13, the new incoming chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. G.T. Thompson (R-PA) convened a listening session at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg.

About a dozen other members of Congress joined Chairman Thompson in hearing from leaders from a wide variety of stakeholder organizations in the Keystone State. Among those who offered their input was Pennsylvania Farmers Union (PFU) president Michael Kovach, who underscored the importance of building resiliency and competition into the food system through the farm bill. President Kovach also noted how soil health is key to success for family farmers in his state and should be prioritized. Further listening sessions and hearings are expected to be announced throughout the early parts of 2023, and NFU is working hard to prepare for these opportunities to provide input.

In January, NFU convened a meeting of the Policy Committee, kicking off NFU’s 2023 policy process. This was the first inperson Policy Committee meeting since 2020. Seven members from across the country, nominated by their respective state Farmers Union divisions, came to Washington, DC to begin crafting NFU’s official 2023 policy book.

The 2023 Policy Committee is chaired by Melany Thomas, representing Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU).

The other members of this year’s Policy Committee are:

• Bryn Bird, Ohio Farmers Union

• Charles Hibner, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union

• Paul Neubauer, Montana Farmers Union

• Philip Neubauer, North Dakota Farmers Union

• Jordan Shearer, Oklahoma Farmers Union

• Hank Wonnenberg, South Dakota Farmers Union

The Policy Committee will reconvene in March at NFU’s 121st Anniversary Convention, in San Francisco, CA, and propose their recommendations to the full slate of delegates during the grassroots policy process.