Sen. Grassley talks Farm Bill, CRP, TikTok during Mahaska County visit

Apr. 14—OSKALOOSA — Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) visited Mahaska County Thursday morning, where he made a stop at the Mahaska Communication Group in Oskaloosa to discuss topics ranging from this year's Farm Bill to the controversy surrounding popular social media platform TikTok.

Grassley discusses CRP issues, main priorities for Farm Bill 2023

The year 2023 is set to be a heavy hitter for Iowa agriculture, with the upcoming Farm Bill hanging in the balance. The Farm Bill is a federal spending package that comes up for renewal every five years, with titles that include trade, nutrition, crop insurance and more. The current bill expires in September of this year, meaning Congress will spend the summer debating what will be included in its various titles.

Grassley listed the Farm Service Agency's Conservation Reserve Program, also known as CRP, as one of his top priorities for the bill.

"We have a problem with the government putting money in CRP," Grassley says. "Sometimes they exceed our 85 percent limit."

The CRP program offers contracts, which pay farmers up to 85% of the average county cash-rental rate, to enroll their "environmentally sensitive" cropland in the program and remove it from production, to instead plant species that will "improve environmental health and quality," according to the United States Department of Agriculture. CRP contracts run from 10 to 15 years in length.

The 85% restriction is to ensure a fair market when it comes to agricultural land rentals.

"We had a very major problem a few years back, where the federal government was spending more money than cash rent was in the area, so we put a limit of 85 percent. No more than that, so the federal government's not an unfair competitor against the cash-rent family farmer," Grassley says. "That restriction has been exceeded, and I don't think legally. But we've got to make sure that that unfairness of the federal government, taking land away from the cash-renter [is resolved]."

The USDA announced in 2021 that there would be an "additional, one-time 10% inflationary adjustment" to payments for new CRP contracts for the life of the contracts, thus exceeding the limit of 85%. The USDA says this increase was enacted to encourage more land enrollment. Grassley says the increase is unfair government competition for land rentals, and is seeking to ensure that the limit on payments remains at 85%.

CRP rental payments are calculated by the Farm Service Agency based on relative productivity of soils in each county and average dry land cash-rent prices, according to the USDA. One method of calculated soil productivity is the Corn Suitability Rating, or CSR, which was developed by Iowa State University in the 1970s and operates on a scale of one to 100, with 100 being the most productive soil.

Fields with lower CSRs are sometimes used to grow crops of hay or oats or to pasture cattle. The average cash-rent rate for Iowa pasture land was $59.50 per acre in 2022 and $58 in 2021, while the average cash-rent rate for non-irrigated cropland in Iowa was $256 in 2022 and $233 in 2021, according to the USDA.

With such high CRP payment rates, farmers who are just starting out in the industry face the daunting challenge of competing financially with the lucrative CRP program.

During a roundtable discussion focused on the conservation title of the Farm Bill, which was held in Oskaloosa this March, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) heard similar concerns about the CRP program from local cattle producers, who are now being forced to compete with cropland CRP rental rates as they seek land for grazing.

The challenge to cattle producers is that, if at one time a piece of land with a low CSR was used to grow a crop like hay or oats, it can be enrolled in the CRP program as cropland. The average CRP payment in Mahaska County in 2021 was $218 per acre according to the USDA, a stark contrast to the state average of $58 per acre for pasture land the same year.

The disparity in prices has left some cattlemen scrambling to find suitable pasture for their herds. Cropland with a low CSR that might previously have been available as pasture is now being enrolled in the CRP program and receiving payments as cropland.

"CRP has its place, but in my part of the world, that is, CRP has taken more pasture, and hay and forage land away than row crop ground ... because a cow can't compete with what the payments are," said Bryan Reed while attending Ernst's roundtable. Reed owns a cattle operation at Albia, Iowa.

After the March roundtable, Ernst said one of her Farm Bill priorities would be a "legislative fix" that would allow cattle to graze on CRP lands. Grassley says he intends to press for keeping the maximum CRP payment at 85% of cash-rent prices in this year's Farm Bill.

Also included in Grassley's top priorities for the Farm Bill were overseas marketing for American exports, keeping and improving crop insurance, and adding more money to agricultural research.

Grassley talks RESTRICT Act, TikTok

Grassley also fielded a question about current legislation that would work to limit the use of popular social media platform TikTok in the United States.

"The most important thing we have before Congress right now [concerning social media] is TikTok. And I'm a co-sponsor of that bill only from the standpoint that TikTok — because it's a China company and under the control of the Chinese Communist Party, or at least they would be if they need information — they are a threat to our national security," Grassley says.

The bill Grassley co-sponsors is called the RESTRICT Act. According to the bill's text, it would give the United States Secretary of Commerce authority to "review and prohibit certain transactions between persons in the United States and foreign adversaries, and for other purposes."

Although TikTok is not specifically named in the legislation, the bill is widely seen as a way to combat the platform's widespread use stateside amid concerns about the company's Chinese roots.

Grassley told reporters that in order for him to keep supporting the bill, he wants to make sure that two things about its current language are changed. He named the bill's statement that actions or findings by the President or Secretary under the act shall not be subject to judicial review as one of his main sticking points. The other was the bill's exemption of information submitted in accordance with it from the Freedom of Information Act.

If those two items are removed from the bill, Grassley says he supports it and rejects the idea that it "interferes with freedom of speech."

"There's some people that are calling our office, saying that it interferes with freedom of speech. Well, obviously freedom of speech is a constitutionally protected, constitutional right, so you can't do that" Grassley says. "But if you did away with TikTok, there's plenty of other platforms for you to exercise your freedom of speech, so I don't see that as a very legitimate argument."

Channing Rucks can be reached at crucks@oskyherald.com.