In the early morning hours of Friday after nearly 14 hours of deliberation, I voted — alongside my Republican colleagues on the House Agriculture Committee — to advance the 2024 Farm Bill out of committee and send it to the House floor for a vote by the full House. This legislation is not only critical for our farmers and our economy, but it’s also vital to our global leadership and our competition against China. By fully funding crop insurance protections, opening new export markets for Iowa agriculture, and investing in cutting-edge agricultural research and development, we can secure the long-term success of American agriculture, support farm productivity, and strengthen our national, energy, and food security.

From high inflation and low commodity prices to unpredictable weather, animal diseases, and government regulation, our farmers and producers face overlapping challenges that strain their budgets and threaten positive economic forecasts. Iowa hog farmers currently face their worst two-year period since 1999, our cattle producers continue to fight for fair pricing for their high-quality beef, and our poultry and egg producers have been crushed by widespread avian bird flu, which has impacted over 90 million birds nationwide. At the same time, our corn growers and ethanol producers face export bans by Mexico and Brazil, respectively — which doesn’t include countries that may follow similar paths — and our agricultural trade deficit has eclipsed a staggering $30 billion. These industry trends and economic realities only reinforce the urgent need to pass a Farm Bill this year that helps our producers manage risk, keep up with rising costs, and expand into new markets.

Over the last year and a half, I’ve been very involved in the entire Farm Bill process – meeting with House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson, visiting farms throughout my district on my Feenstra Agriculture Tour, and listening to the suggestions and concerns of Iowa farmers and our agricultural community. The conversations that I have had with my Agriculture Advisory Board and with farmers and producers on my agriculture tour have informed my priorities for rural Iowa, which are now included in the Farm Bill.

With the input and feedback of our producers back home, I introduced legislation to strengthen crop insurance for our young and beginning farmers, open new export markets for Iowa agriculture through the development of refrigeration infrastructure and port improvements abroad, gut wasteful spending in the SNAP program, overturn California’s Prop 12 mandates, and keep China away from our farmland. The Farm Bill also includes my work to expand broadband in rural Iowa, support research initiatives at places like Iowa State University, improve the Livestock Indemnity Program to deliver fair market prices for our cattle producers, and invest in homegrown Iowa biofuels. I also prioritized investments in expanded behavioral health services in our rural communities and called for increased support for farmers to secure low-cost loans to purchase precision agriculture equipment. These priorities reflect my discussions with Iowans and our shared mission to keep Iowa agriculture successful and our rural communities strong.

Additional legislation in the Farm Bill that I supported includes the Future FARMER Act, which fully funds the Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) program — an initiative that supports agriculture education for about 160,000 students and 3,000 teachers across Iowa — and the Community College Agriculture Advancement Act, which would equip our community and technical colleges with the resources that they need to offer and expand agriculture education for their students and the next generation of farmers. I also helped introduce legislation to promote the production of sustainable aviation fuel, allow schools to serve whole milk to our kids, expedite the safe processing of beef, and offer affordable loans to help small and family-owned meat processors improve and expand their operations.

Furthermore, I called for the inclusion of legislation to reauthorize three programs – the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, the National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program, and the National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank – to help defend American agriculture from devastating animal disease outbreaks, and supported legislation to double the funding for the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) Program, which promote exports of American agricultural products. I also cosponsored bills to authorize the National Detector Dog Training Center to train dogs to sniff out invasive pests and keep foreign animal diseases out of our country and help our producers access, navigate, and enroll in voluntary conservation programs administered through the USDA.

Representing the second-largest agriculture-producing district, I am glad to have secured real victories for Iowa agriculture in the Farm Bill. I will continue to be the strongest voice for our farmers and producers in Congress and work to get this must-pass legislation signed into law.

U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, represents Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District.