Baldwin pushes for The Honor Farmer Contracts Act

WASHINGTON D.C. (CIVIC MEDIA) – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and her colleagues introduced the Honor Farmer Contracts Act, legislation to release illegally withheld funding for all contracts and agreements previously entered into by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

President Trump’s USDA has refused to make reimbursement payments to fulfill signed contracts, without any indication of when or whether farmers will be paid the money they paid out and are owed. Farmers in Wisconsin and the organizations that serve them operate on tight margins and cannot be left waiting without funding they rightfully were awarded and planned for.

This legislation would require the USDA to pay farmers all past due payments as quickly as possible to prevent them from having to shut down their operations. The

Honor Farmer Contracts Act would also:
require the USDA to unfreeze all signed agreements and contracts; prohibit the USDA from cancelling agreements or contracts with farmers or organizations providing assistance to farmers unless there has been a failure to comply with the terms and conditions of the agreement or contract; and prohibit the USDA from closing any Farm Service Agency county office, Natural Resources Conservation Service field office or Rural Development Service Center without providing 60 days prior notice and justification to Congress.

When farmers successfully apply to USDA programs and then spend their own dollars under contracts with the agency, they rightfully expect that they will receive reimbursement. Similarly, farmer-serving organizations—which farmers rely upon to connect to local markets and implement practices that make them more productive and less resource intensive—are facing imminent funding crises from not being reimbursed for completed or in-progress contracted work. If not quickly made whole, these organizations will be forced to make agonizing decisions to lay off staff and stop helping farmers, destroying years of progress and investment in our agriculture economy.

In March of this year, Senator Baldwin successfully pushed the USDA to restart payments already committed to Wisconsin Dairy Business Innovation (DBI) Initiative recipients after calling on the Trump Administration the month prior to release the funding. She’s also called on the Trump Administration to reverse course on funding for a partnership between Wisconsin farmers and local food banks that was clawed back by the federal government earlier this month.

*Some data for this article was compiled from WisPoilitics.com.

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