SD congressional delegation explains what's inside the 2023 farm bill

The three men representing South Dakota in the nation’s Capitol building believe it’s “unlikely” the 2023 farm bill will be passed by a Sept. 30 deadline. But, they’re confident the $1.5 trillion bill, which supports farmers, ranchers and provides nutritional assistance for low-income Americans, will be in President Joe Biden’s hands by the end of the year.

Republican Sens. John Thune, Mike Rounds and Rep. Dusty Johnson took the stage at the annual Dakotafest on Wednesday in Mitchell to update South Dakotans on the upcoming farm bill and to explain what’s inside the massive piece of legislation that will provide safety net programs, potentially require mandatory country of origin labeling and more over the next five years.

Congress has not started the work of editing the legislation and moving it across both chambers. Standing in the way of passing the farm bill in the next few weeks are holdouts from far-right House Republicans who want to curb spending on certain farm programs and by House Democrats who oppose adding work requirements for Americans receiving SNAP benefits.

“We’re not going to have successful American agriculture if we destroy the risk management tools that producers need. So to the extent that there are some members of the House seeking to do that, they’re not going to be able to get the votes for their ideas,” Johnson told the Argus Leader on Wednesday.

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Johnson has been a supporter of expanding work requirements for SNAP recipients and penned a bill earlier this year to do just that.

Farm bill delay not unusual

Thune, the most senior politician on the panel, said this year’s farm bill is the fifth time he’s worked on the key legislation.

The fourth-term senator apologized at the beginning of the panel for his hoarse voice, with Johnson quipping it was an honor to be speaking with Clint Eastwood.

Thune said in the previous farm bills he’s worked on, there have been extensions.

“It’s important for the good of the country and for the good of our ag industry that we get the new bill in place that lays out the policy for the next four to five years,” he said.

“We’ll continue to make sure that this is a South Dakota-producer driven farm bill.”

New additions to the 2023 farm bill

Aside from providing crop insurance and other safety net programs for farmers and ranchers, the delegation spoke about new amendments to the legislation that would require mandatory country of origin labeling on agricultural products and restricting purchases of ag land by foreign governments the United States deems an adversary.

Mandatory country of origin labeling has been placed into two previous farm bills, in 2002 and 2008, Thune explained. Both times the legislation, which would require cattle producers to label where the beef came from, were challenged by the World Trade Organization on the grounds discriminating against meat imports.

This time around language would allow the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to negotiate a country of origin labeling requirement to withstand a challenge from the WTO, Thune said. If a requirement can’t be reached, then the farm bill’s version of mandatory country of origin would kick in.

More: Is meat with 'Made in the USA' label actually from the US? USDA seeks to close loophole

Rounds added that there’s already voluntary product labeling in the U.S. and the USDA is working on the effort to ensure that what is labeled “Made in the USA” is actually born, fed, processed and packaged in the U.S..

“But just in case they get fickle, we want to put that into the farm bill and make it law as well,” Rounds said.

Another possible amendment to the farm bill is restricting foreign purchases of agricultural land, something Johnson has spearheaded in Washington. Republican Gov. Kristi Noem attempted to do something similar during the 2023 legislative session in January but her efforts failed.

The crackdown on the foreign purchase of ag land comes after a Chinese company purchased land near the Grand Forks Air Force base in North Dakota in summer 2022.

The bill would ban China, North Korea, Iran, Russia and Venezuela under the Maduro regime from buying agricultural land in the U.S. It has bipartisan support and has already passed the Senate as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. But, if the legislation is unable to make it through the House, Rounds said it could be included in the farm bill.

More: SD Rep. Dusty Johnson supporting bill increasing oversight over foreign farmland purchases

“I think it’s highly likely that we get something done this year in one vehicle bill,” Johnson said.

Thune said the bill would also protect America’s national security interests and protect South Dakotans.

“As people who make our living here in South Dakota and agriculture, our number one industry, we want to keep the intergenerational family farming tradition and heritage we have here going forward,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: 2023 farm bill to be delayed, Sen. John Thune says