Congress can act now to secure increased Farm Bill funding for generations to come
By Andrew Schmidt, director of government affairs
Parents of young kids will likely understand what I mean when I say, “Bluey is for the parents as much as it’s for the kids.”
The Australian animated series about the six-year-old blue heeler puppy offers much to adult viewers – it is funny, poignant, thoughtful and silly. What you might be surprised to hear though, is it may also have something to teach us about farm bill politics.
Take the season 2 episode, “Ice Cream” (if you have not seen it, it is worth seven minutes of your day), in which Bluey and her little sister, Bingo, get ice cream on a sweltering summer day. While they both agree to share a taste of each other’s ice cream, there is some dispute over who will share first and how big of a lick is allowed. But Bluey and Bingo are so focused on making sure each lick is fair, they don’t notice the ice cream is melting. By the time they realize, it's too late – the ice cream is completely gone.
So, what does this have to do with the farm bill? Back in 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which included a major investment in the voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs authorized in the farm bill by providing an additional $19.5 billion for climate mitigation and carbon sequestration practices on private lands. These practices are extremely popular and effective, as we’ve highlighted before. This investment in proven conservation programs was and is historic – but it was one-time funding, and once the money is spent, that’s it.
But there is another option, and that is moving the more than $13 billion that remains from the IRA into the conservation title of the farm bill. If Congress were to reach a bipartisan agreement to reinvest the remaining IRA dollars into the conservation title baseline, this increase in funding would be incorporated not only into this farm bill, but permanently into future bills as well. This means the $6 billion-per-year conservation title could see as much as a 25% increase in baseline funding – in perpetuity. That is a lot of dollarbucks!
There is strong bipartisan support for this approach. Just in the last few months, we’ve seen all four leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees publicly support moving this funding into the farm bill conservation baseline. There is, however, still significant disagreement on whether to keep this funding focused strictly on climate mitigation practices, as mentioned above, or to incorporate it into the baseline without any climate guardrails. We believe there is a meaningful bipartisan compromise to be found here, and we can pass a 2024 Farm Bill that makes a historic investment into these proven and successful conservation programs for generations to come.
That is why Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever recently joined over 500 other conservation, agriculture and rural development organizations in sending a letter to Congressional leaders, urging them to come together to pass a bipartisan 2024 Farm Bill this year. Every day – or year – that goes by before a new farm bill is enacted means less money that can be reinvested into the conservation title baseline. And with the year more than halfway over and elections coming in the fall, we cannot afford to keep waiting.
We need to get this farm bill done now, or the potential to add billions of dollars in funding for future conservation will melt just as fast as Bluey and Bingo’s ice cream. Only in the real world, Congress isn’t as sympathetic as Bluey’s dad, and there is no double chocolate in an extra-large cup waiting for us at the end.
---------------------
Advocating for Conservation
It takes good habitat to produce abundant wildlife and opportunities to hunt—but it also takes robust public funding and sound conservation policy. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s dedicated Government Affairs team works in Washington D.C. and state capitols across America to create and secure funding for programs that benefit the uplands, from the rugged backcountry to the neighboring farm’s “back 40.” Thank you to our chapters, volunteers and members for the generous grassroots and Legislative Action Fund (LAF) support that makes this work possible.
To learn more about PF & QF’s policy priorities and ways you can help advocate for conservation, visit this page or email advocacy@pheasantsforever.org.
Photo source: https://www.bluey.tv/