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“Put more farm back in the farm bill”
A member of the U.S. Senate Ag Committee says there is a slim possibility of getting a bill passed before the end of the fiscal year.
U.S. Senator Mike Braun (R, Indiana) tells Brownfield a lack of ag in the proposed farm bill is to blame for the hold up in Washington.
“Those of us that know agriculture are somehow having trouble getting anything out of that 85%,” he says. “Many of us don’t want to borrow and spend more. It’s already a huge bill and that’s kind of where we’re at loggerheads.”
According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service just over 75% of the 2018 Farm Bill goes to nutrition programs.
Braun says this is the first proposed farm bill that surpassed the trillion dollar mark.
“I think it’s roughly around 1.2 trillion and I think the last one was about 800 billion,” he says. “That is a big jump, but then again most of it’s going into nutrition and sadly we’re borrowing every penny of that increase, which I that’s not a good long term business plan.”
Brownfield interviewed Braun, Indiana’s Republican candidate for Governor at Indiana Pork’s Ham Breakfast on the opening day of the Indiana State Fair.
AUDIO: Mike Braun
