FARM BILL CALL TO ACTION

Tricia Braid

Nov 08, 2012  |  Today's News

If you’re a member of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, you received a letter from ICGA President Jeff Scates asking you to make a call to your member of Congress to encourage them to pass a Farm Bill Now during the lame duck session of Congress.Joining ICGA in this effort are the Illinois Soybean Association and Illinois Farm Bureau, hoping to ring phones off the hook in DC. 

The number to call is 888-WHY-CORN or 888-949-2676. That will get you to the US House of Representatives switchboard operator. Ask to be transferred to your CURRENT congressional office. Too much hangs in the balance to hand Farm Bill work off to the new Congress. Wearing an especially large target is the crop insurance program. If this work pushes into 2013, the plans for sequestration will mean immediate and large cuts to crop insurance, along with other programs.

This point was made clear in a Reuters news report just yesterday. Reporter Charles Abbott wrote here that, “Federally subsidized crop insurance will be a big target for lawmakers looking to cut the budget deficit in the lame-duck session of Congress opening next week, agricultural policy experts agreed the morning after a status-quo general election.” The cuts will only go deeper when sequestration rules go into effect.

Now is the time. Call and say that you need a Farm Bill Now.