Photo provided to the Times Observer Congressman Glenn Thompson met with fifth and sixth grade students at St. Joseph Catholic School while he was in Warren on Monday. Thompson spent a half hour with the students taking questions and discussing his experiences in Congress. In the photo with Thompson are the school’s fifth and sixth grade students and teachers as well Father Rick Tomasone and Principal Carrie Pearson.

The current iteration of the Farm Bill technically expired Sept. 30.

Congressman Glenn Thompson – who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, where the Farm Bill originates – has criss-crossed the country holding listening sessions this year.

And he’s looking forward to getting the bill on the House floor in December.

“We’ll be ready for that,” Thompson told the Times Observer. “We’ve been working hard.”

The three week defacto shutdown in the House over the Speaker fight, brought an unintentional benefit where work on the Farm Bill is concerned.

“It gave me a lot of great committee time the last three weeks,” he said.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the farm bill “is an omnibus, multiyear law that sets the stage for the nation’s food and farm systems.

“It includes multiple titles, or sections, that intersect policy areas including conservation, rural energy development, nutrition assistance and aid to new and beginning farmers and ranchers.”

Per the Congressional Research Service, that bill spans multiple years and “governs an array of agricultural and food programs. It provides an opportunity for policymakers to comprehensively and periodically address agricultural and food issues.”

Thompson explained that the bill is “incredibly important to not just food on the table,” highlighting other areas of rural impact ranging from broadband to research to workforce issues.

“(We) made some good progress with the Farm Bill the past week,” he said. “It was a productive past three weeks.”

While the bill expired in September, Thompson said the real date where action is needed for some programs is Jan. 1.

He called the end of September a “technical deadline. The last bill we did was later in the year” and there were “no real significant consequences as a result.

“I see the significant deadline as being Jan. 1, 2024,” he said. “There are technically 20 programs we would call orphaned programs,” that are “authorized but not funded without a specific extension and/or a Farm Bill reauthorization. Some of those are pretty significant” including funding for organic farming and land grant universities.

He also said that the Dairy Margin Coverage Program, which helps producers reduce risk regarding milk prices and feed prices, would also be impacted without action by Jan. 1.

Thompson does not expect the Farm Bill to be enacted in total by then.

“The only thing I have control of is the House,” he said, calling on the house to “do our job by January. (I will) be very disappointed if we don’t do that.”

Thompson said that Speaker Mike Johnson has given the Farm Bill a week on the floor next month.

That, he explained, would see a committee markup a week before and the release of the Farm Bill language the week before that.

He said he’s proud of the bipartisan team he has working to get this bill done.

“It’s for five years,” he said. “We want it to be a platform for the future.”