Congress moved one step closer to passing a new farm bill this week after Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman released the Senate's version of the legislation.
The release comes just weeks after the House passed its own farm bill proposal.
Brantley Seifers, director of national government affairs for Indiana Farm Bureau, said it's the most significant movement on a farm bill in years.
The current farm bill expired in 2023, but Congress has repeatedly extended the 2018 version while lawmakers worked toward a replacement.
Seifers said many of the largest farm policy provisions were already included in the recently passed federal budget package, including updates to crop insurance programs and farm safety-net programs.
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Still, he said the remaining portions of the farm bill are important for Indiana farmers and rural communities.
Among the provisions Farm Bureau is watching are rural development programs, agricultural research funding and a fix to California's Proposition-12 livestock regulations.
The Senate proposal does not currently include a Proposition-12 fix or year-round E15 ethanol sales language, both priorities for Farm Bureau.
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Seifers said lawmakers still have time to address those issues as the bill moves through the Senate process.
If the Senate passes its version, lawmakers from both chambers would then negotiate a final bill through a conference committee before sending it to the president.
Seifers said farmers have been waiting years for certainty.
"That's what this farm bill really is, getting it across the finish line and signed into law, is that consistency, that certainty that our members need, especially in these economic times that we have," he said.
Farm Bureau is encouraging farmers to discuss the legislation with members of Indiana's congressional delegation while lawmakers are back in their districts during August.
