Tuberville says $1.5T Farm Bill promotes welfare, not agriculture

Sen. Tommy Tuberville took to the Senate floor Tuesday to express his doubts about a $1.5 trillion Farm Bill that is being pushed by Democrats.

Tuberville (R-Auburn), a member of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, said much of the spending in the legislation doesn’t address the needs of farmers and the bill could create a rise in welfare dependence.

“This is the first trillion-dollar Farm Bill in our nation’s history,” he said. “The enormous price tag of the bill is driven by an 84% increase in SNAP, or federal nutrition assistance, and a 58% increase in conservation programs. In other words, a huge increase in welfare and climate spending.

“Most of this new spending does not offer support of our farmers. The $559 billion increase in SNAP funding was done directly by the Department of Agriculture through updates to the Thrifty Food Plan,” said Tuberville.

“The whole purpose of the Farm Bill is supposed to be to help farmers. What an idea. Yet, seven out of every eight dollars — again, seven out of eight dollars — in the Farm Bill is for something else,” said Tuberville. “Our farmers depend on crop insurance, commodity programs, such as the Agriculture Risk Program (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program, and disaster programs to help them deal with difficult crop yields, markets, and rising input costs. Farmers can’t control the weather or the price, and that’s the reason they need help. We have to remember farmers put food on the table, but there’s a lot of people that don’t understand that.

“These are some of the hardest working people in America. And they have too little to show for it.”

Tuberville spoke about the Yellowhammer State’s agricultural difficulties and how they could be made worse by the Democrat proposed legislation.

“Back home in my state of Alabama, I have heard the struggles facing our row croppers and specialty crop producers. They need help to deal with inflation and rising input costs,” Tuberville said. “Farm production costs have increased 28% since Joe Biden took office less than three years ago. That’s embarrassing. How in the world can we increase prices 28% in this country in two and a half years and expect the people of this country to survive — the hardworking people — farmers included. Fuel and fertilizer prices are 60% to 130% higher than they were in 2021.

“Folks, we can’t survive with that. But my colleagues on the left are not even concerned about it, not one bit.”

Tuberville said a large amount of farmers are relying on what is called “the farm safety net” to stay in business.

“Other farm expenses like land, cash rents, labor, and equipment are all adding up. As a result, net farm income is projected to decrease by roughly 23% this year. Costs are up, incomes are down, and farmers are struggling to survive,” he said. “The only thing that’s keeping our farmers afloat is called the farm safety net. But the current support levels for Title 1 commodity programs like cotton, peanuts, and soybeans are not high enough to sustain our farmers for over the next five years.

“If we don’t raise these reference prices, and right now my colleagues on the left don’t want to raise those reference prices for our farmers, we’re going to be buying all of our food and everything that we eat from other countries.”

Tuberville said apathy on the topic can no longer be afforded.

“Now, we don’t need to idly sit by while our hardworking producers work tirelessly and barely survive under this Joe Biden economy,” he said. “Our nation’s food security is going to depend on it, and the lives of all American citizens are going to depend on it.”

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.