National Farmers Union Gears Up for Fly-In
The National Farmers Union is preparing for their annual Washington DC fly in event where they will advocate for policy and agriculture as a whole, as well as the Farm Bill. Vice President of Advocacy, Mike Stranz.
“Our fly in is really our second biggest event of the year for National Farmers Union. We expect about 250, or 300 farmers union members from across the country to travel to Washington to spend some time meeting with elected officials and decision makers here in Washington, it’s a great opportunity to meet those lawmakers where they are and to bring forward some priorities for the rest of this year, really, because we’ve got just a few weeks of congressional action left to go and a lot of work that needs to be done. So it’s a critical time.”
They have a long list of talking points to hit with. The biggest one being the Farm Bill.
“Farm Bill is kind of at a juncture here where things seem to be stagnating a bit. The House Agriculture Committee having passed a bill back in May that got through the committee. And then on the Senate side, there’s competing frameworks out there, one from the Senate Agriculture Committee Democrats and one from the Republicans. We need to see some action on a farm bill if we’re going to get one done this year, and we need to see it soon.”
The current extension date expires on September 30, and could slip by without any immediate impacts, however, strand says it’s imperative a strong five year bill gets passed.