Rep. Johnson discusses congressional legislation
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HURON – Bipartisan legislation aimed at giving farmers and ranchers more emergency flexibility in combatting forage shortages in disaster years and avoiding a massive selloff of livestock is gaining congressional and national coalition support, Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said Wednesday.
Producers should be able to graze their animals on prevented planting acres well before the Nov. 1 date that crop insurance rules in the Farm Bill call for, he said in a conference call a week ago.
Johnson has now joined with fellow freshman Rep. Angie Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, in introducing the Feed Emergency Enhancement During Disasters (FEEDD) Act.
He told reporters on Wednesday that 14 national farm groups, associations and coalitions have come out in support of the bill since it was introduced two days earlier. So have a number of members of Congress in both parties representing districts surrounding South Dakota, he said.
With 10,000 bills introduced in Congress every year, many are what’s known as messaging vehicles, Johnson said.
But not this one. The intent is to change policy, he said. Johnson said he wants the legislation to move forward or to put enough pressure on the administration to act.
“We want livestock producers to be able to help themselves,” he said. “They don’t want another government program. We have people with serious concerns.”
Not only is Craig a good partner in the effort, Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, also a Minnesota Democrat, has expressed his support. It’s not typical for committee chairs to sign on to a bill as they prefer independence, Johnson said.
The FEEDD Act would allow producers to graze their livestock on cover crops that will be planted this year because wet conditions have delayed them in getting corn and soybeans into the ground.