Washington Update: New Year, New Congress

As I write this Washington Update, the one thing I’m sure of is that 2025 will require the 119th Congress to get right to work with a busy start to the congressional year. Senate committees will hold nomination hearings for 24 cabinet-level positions, with each needing a vote by the full Senate.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress that the U.S. will hit its debt limit unless the government takes "extraordinary measures" to avoid default. The stopgap spending bill (H.R. 10545, the “American Relief Act, 2025”) passed by Congress and signed by the President on December 21, 2024, extends current government funding through March 14, 2025, creating a new deadline for a Fiscal Year 2025 government funding bill.

The American Relief Act also included a one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill, keeping a new five-year farm bill on the to-do list. In addition, domestic tax policy, like extending or amending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and border security are on the priority list.

Lastly, President-elect Donald Trump has an ambitious first-100 days of executive orders and legislative priorities including deportation, immigration, tariffs, tax proposals and regulatory relief, all focusing on campaign promises.

New Secretary of Agriculture

Brooke Rollins has been nominated by the president-elect to serve as the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary. Rollins grew up on a Texas farm baling hay and raising livestock. She also spent time on her family’s farm in Minnesota, participating in 4-H and FFA.

A graduate of Texas A&M with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Development, she has a strong knowledge of agriculture. Rollins served in the first Trump administration focusing on rural priorities as the Director of United States Domestic Policy Council. Several national agricultural organizations are supporting Rollins’ nomination and have reached out to Senate leadership.

Farm Bill Update

This is the second extension of the farm bill. The bill, last approved in 2018, oversees farm programs and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). House Agriculture Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson said that he hopes to pass a farm bill early this year that addresses the ongoing decline in farm income.

“I hope to move quickly to enact a five-year farm bill that aligns the farm safety net with the needs of producers, among many other policies, to minimize the need for annual economic aid,” he said.

Partisan divides over funding for climate and anti-hunger programs will be at the center of negotiations, and a new Congress could mean months before an agreement is reached. Reorganization in Congress will determine committee membership, which will in turn determine the direction of a new bill.

For the immediate term, it is important to know that the American Relief Act includes $10 billion in one-time economic payments for farmers and an additional $20 billion for producers to recover natural disasters that occurred the last two years.

American Relief Act Assistance

Farmers can qualify for economic payments for 20 commodity crops including: corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, grain sorghum, barley, oats, peanuts, dry peas, flaxseed, large chickpeas, small chickpeas, mustard seed, rapeseed, safflower, crambe and sesame seed. The amount of assistance provided will be calculated by multiplying a farm’s economic loss by the number of acres, with the payment equaling 26% of that final number. Acres can include 50% of land that could not be planted during the 2024 crop year due to drought, floods or other natural disasters.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will have 90 days from the enactment of the bill to make the payments. Payments will be capped at $125,000 for farms whose agricultural operations make up less than 75% of average gross income from the 2020 through 2022 tax years. Farms whose gross income is above 75% for those years can receive a maximum of $250,000.