The U.S. Congress voted 52-47 in favor of relinking conservation compliance to crop insurance in the next Farm Bill! This is a huge victory, and we are grateful that Illinois Senator Dick Durbin voted in favor of the amendment. We are also grateful to those of you who responded to our call-to-action and contacted your Senators to support the amendment.
If the House version of the Farm Bill also supports conservation compliance, farmers who receive crop insurance subsidies will have to control erosion and conserve wetlands. We think that’s more than a fair deal in exchange for the billions of taxpayer dollars that subsidize crop insurance premiums each year.
What’s next? The Senate may vote on the entire Farm Bill later this week, and then the House Agriculture Committee will draft their version of the Farm Bill after the Fourth of July recess. Illinois has three Congressman on the House Agriculture Committee: Hultgren, Johnson, and Schilling. Therefore, we will be calling on you in the near future to contact these legislators and urge their support for conservation compliance in the House Farm Bill.
