Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., early today released the text of the farm bill and a summary of that bill.

Stabenow is retiring at the end of this Congress, and her decision to release the text is a signal she still hopes Congress will pass a farm bill before it adjourns, or at least to put her detailed, 1,397-page proposal on the table. Congress has a lot to do before it adjourns — including passing a measure to fund the government — and dealing with disaster aid and prospects for passage of a farm bill appear slim.

Stabenow said in a news release, “The foundation of every successful farm bill is built on holding together the broad, bipartisan farm bill coalition. This is a strong bill that invests in all of agriculture, helps families put food on the table, supports rural prosperity, and holds that coalition together.”

Read the bill at https://tinyurl.com/43a7zujr.

The committee staff said the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act “includes $39 billion in new resources to keep farmers farming, families fed and rural communities strong. The bill builds on the proposal Chairwoman Stabenow released in May by investing new resources and including innovative, new ideas to deliver the assistance farmers need faster. It provides farmers with the certainty of a five-year farm bill — so they can plan for the future — and the immediate help they need to manage the urgent needs of the present. It doubles down on our commitment to rural communities, ensures that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program keeps up with the realities of American life, and brings the historic investments in climate-smart conservation practices into the farm bill. These new investments include:

• $20 billion to strengthen the farm safety net to support all of agriculture and establishes a permanent structure for disaster assistance so emergency relief reaches farmers faster;
• $8.5 billion to help families make ends meet, put food on the table, and improve access to nutrition assistance;
• $4.3 billion to improve quality of life in the rural communities that millions of Americans call home.”