“The Republican inability — utter incompetence is a better description — to govern has real impact.”
Zach Nunn is getting called out for failing to pass a new Farm Bill and causing Iowans to suffer as a result of his party’s infighting and ineffectiveness.
Nunn, who’s a member of the Agriculture Committee, let the Farm Bill expire for nearly 50 days and hasn’t done a thing to pass a new 5-year bill – and is even blatantly trying to hoodwink his constituents into seeing this abject failure as a victory.
Meanwhile, Iowa farmers are paying the price as farm programs are “run[ning] on fumes.”
The new five-year federal farm program, which was due on the president’s desk no later than Sept. 30, 2023, is missing. Republicans, who run the U.S. House of Representatives, don’t have a good answer about why it is missing.
The truth is, a new five-year Farm Bill was not enacted before it expired on Sept. 30, 2023, for one simple reason: Congress didn’t get around to it. It was too busy — particularly in the House — with “more pressing” matters.
Specifically, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives was way too busy chasing partisan and ideological windmills, and fighting amongst themselves to find time to actually do their jobs.
In the case of the five-year Farm Bill, which was last enacted in 2018, the CR extends the federal farm program not by five years, but by just one year, to Sept. 30, 2024. That’s an additional year for farm programs to run on the fumes of policies set in 2018, with funding at current levels.
Iowa Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, who represents the 3rd District, had the most interesting — no, make that the most laughable — press release announcing this congressional failure.
He not only announced the failure as a great victory, he claimed in a press release that he himself — Zach Nunn — had secured passage for it. Apparently on his own: “Nunn Secures Passage of Critical Agricultural Programs for Iowans,” read his immodest headline. He never got around to mentioning that this action was only needed because Congress failed to complete its work on a new five-year Farm Bill by Sept. 30. And the only mention he made of any role he had in “securing” this “up is down” and “black is white” great victory was to say that he voted for it.
Here’s where it really gets rich: Nunn also quoted himself saying “… producers are facing enough difficulties without worrying about D.C. hurting their business. They deserve far better than to be saddled with the consequences of politicians not doing their job.”
Well, they do deserve better, but they also deserve better than to be told that by a politician — Zach Nunn, a politician — who, along with his other Republican politician colleagues in the House let the 2018 Farm Bill expire without enacting a new one on time.
Nunn is a member of the House Agriculture Committee, by the way. So he was kind of one of the first in line of those politicians who did not do their job by letting the 2018 Farm Bill expire without a replacement ready.
Leaving the work undone that Congress was supposed to do on behalf of family farmers and rural communities has real consequences. Multi-year financing, planting, and marketing decisions, and a host of other decisions depend, to one degree or another, on knowing what the federal farm program is going to be over the next few years. That’s why Farm Bills are written in five-year chunks.
The Republican inability — utter incompetence is a better description — to govern has real impact. Failing to complete government-wide appropriations by the end of the fiscal year affects all Americans, but family farmers are getting a front row seat to witness this dysfunction up close and personal with the failure to enact a five-year Farm Bill and the uncertainty that comes with that.
This chaos is no accident. It is the inevitable result of voting for and electing people to Congress who are incapable of governing, but worst yet, have no real interest in governing, so strong is the lure of partisan, political gamesmanship and the thirst for power without knowing what to constructively do with that power once obtained.
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