Republican Congress Forgets About New Farm Bill - Even Iowa’s Congressional Delegation
Two thirds of Iowa’s “Silent Six” congressional delegation serves on the House or Senate Ag Committee. They're saying and doing nothing to get a new Farm Bill moving
A new FarmBill - urgent legislation vital to the agriculture economy in Iowa and the nation - is languishing, forgotten and unattended, in the Republican controlled Congress.
Passing a new Farm Bill, when the old one nears expiration, is usually an important priority for Congress - but not for this one. The current Congress is preoccupied with other things - like enabling the wrecking of the federal government, hobbling Social Security’s ability to function, destroying foreign markets, demonizing immigrants, morphing America’s democracy into fascism, and shouting loud hosannas for Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Even Iowa’s congressional delegation - the “Silent Six” - haven’t said or done anything to move a new Farm Bill on its way.
A review of press releases they have posted on their official House or Senate websites reveal that since Congress convened four months ago in January not one of them has called on anyone to get in gear and get the Farm Bill enacted.
Not one.
Sense of urgency? They act like they’ve never heard of it.
Looking at their press releases is a good measure of their activity because they usually don’t miss an opportunity to issue one. If anything of note happens around them, they frequently spring into press release mode, often taking credit for whatever it was that transpired. Believe me, if any one of them had publicly called on somebody to do anything about the Farm Bill - you know, honked the horn a bit on it and tried to get it moving - there would have been press releases.
Only crickets on that front.
Keep in mind that four of Iowa’s “Silent Six” are on either the House or Senate Ag Committee: Rep. Zach Nunn (3rd-IA) and Rep. Randy Feenstra (4th-IA); and both Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) who are on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Senator Grassley is a special case. He told a reporter on April 11 that the Farm Bill was on a list of things Congress needed to do - but made clear it was also going to have to wait at least six weeks before anything happens with it because Congress has other things to do.
Not exactly a case of “horn honking” to call attention to the urgency of this issue, is it?
We’ll see whether Grassley’s time table holds up. Even if it does, however, that would mean the “new” Farm Bill will have languished over 600 days since the old one expired.
That would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago.
But not a peep from Iowans in Congress about it now. Clearly, they are not exactly the champions for agriculture they claim to be, are they?
The current Farm Bill was enacted and signed into law in 2018. It establishes the nation’s basic farm policies for five years. It expired on September 30, 2023. Normally, Congress would have written and enacted a new one before the old one expired. But that didn’t happen in 2023, because Congress couldn’t pass one. So it simply extended the 2018 bill for another year, through September 30, 2024.
When September 30, 2024 rolled around, Congress still had no new Farm Bill. So Congress kicked the can down the road again. For another year - through fiscal year 2025 (September 30, 2025) and the 2025 crop year.
It is now April, the fourth month of 2025 - with just five months left before September 30, 2025.
Yet, in Congress - House or Senate - you can’t find live action to pass a new, updated Farm Bill anywhere.
Not even with a pack of bloodhounds.
Keep in mind when Congress failed to pass a new Farm Bill last year before going home to campaign, Iowans in Congress promised that passing an updated Farm Bill would be a top priority when Congress returned after the 2024 elections in the new Congress.
When Congress returned, nothing happened. Then or since.
That means farmers are still operating under basic farm policies written in 2018 - seven years ago! Has anything changed in your world in the past seven years? I’m guessing the answer is “Yes.” The same is true for the nation’s farmers, who deserve the updated, new Farm Bill they were promised.
Here’s an example of how disengaged Congress is from passing a new Farm Bill: Take a good look at the screen shot below: The House Agriculture Committee website has a few nice pages dedicated to the Farm Bill, but note in the picture below: the last time Chairman Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R 15th PA) updated the site with a press statement about the Farm Bill was in August, 2024.
Not much of a fire burning under this guy’s behind on the Farm Bill - and he’s in charge of the committee with responsibility for passing it, and schedules the committee’s work.
Congressional representatives from farm states always talk a good game about the Farm Bill when they are running for re-election. My guess is that if any of Iowa’s delegation had campaigned on a promise to do what they have actually delivered on the Farm Bill - letting it twist slowly in the wind until people, hopefully, forget about it - there might have been a few different outcomes in Iowa elections.
Congress needs to do its job on the long over due Farm Bill. That goes double for Iowa’s “Silent Six” - especially the four of the six who are on the Agriculture Committees in their chamber.
They talk a good game about farmers. It’s way past time to deliver.
WEEKLY OVERDUE FARM BILL TICKER - 561 DAYS: The number of days that have passed since the 2018 Farm Bill expired on September 30, 2023, without Congress passing a new one. (Total days as of Sunday, 04/13/2025).
Two thirds of Iowa’s congressional delegation serves on the U.S. House and Senate Agriculture Committees: Grassley (R-IA) and Ernst (R-IA) in the Senate; Nunn (R-3rd IA) and Feenstra (R-4th IA) in the House.
There is little indication Congress will act any time soon to pass a new Farm Bill, or if it does - given the Trump-Musk wrecking ball and the eagerness of Republicans in Congress to appease them - that it will be helpful to farmers.
This column is published as part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative (IWC). This kind of local, independent commentary is an experiment that aims to fill in the gap created by market forces that require many traditional media outlets to cut back the range of what they offer. So far, it’s working, thanks to those of you who are able to become paid subscribers.
We do not accept advertising, so the only source of revenue for our writers is from those who pay to subscribe to individual publications like this one.
The “Barry Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains” column keeps a sharp eye on the Iowa congressional delegation, and frequently goes “behind the curtains” to tell you what’s really happening.
If you are able to support this effort with a paid subscription, a free subscription, a “Restack,” or a “Share’ please do so. It makes this column possible. and helps others find us. We even like the “likes” if you see the kind of opinion, commentary and analysis you’d like to see more often.
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative (IWC)
Please explore all of the IWC columns (listed below) and consider a paid or free subscription to several. IWC writers are all professional writers. care deeply about Iowa, and are some the best writers and thinkers in the state. They offer top notch reporting and commentary, as well as a wide range of features. seldom available from traditional media as changing market forces limit what they are able to provide.
Please explore, and try to support five if you can, any way you can.
No words for their dereliction of duty. No words for why farmers continue to vote for these people 🤦♀️
My brother died 20 years ago. He would be 70 on Tuesday. His widow said that she was thinking of him and the song "Iowa Waltz."
A line in Greg Brown's song goes, "We take care of our own, take care of the young."
I am unsure if that thought is true about Iowa anymore or anywhere.