After months of delay, Congress has passed the 2008 Farm Bill. Despite my work to make sure the new farm bill would be good for Kansas agriculture and my efforts to improve this bill, I opposed passage of the 2008 Farm Bill for its failure to adequately address the needs of Kansas farmers and ranchers.

Over the last two and a half years, I participated in 15 Agriculture Committee hearings on farm policy held across the country and had countless conversations with Kansas producers. I had two basic guidelines in deciding how to vote. First, the new farm bill should be at least as good as the current farm bill. This is clearly not the case. Second, Kansas farmers repeatedly told me to protect direct payments and maintain strong support for crop insurance. The 2008 Farm Bill failed on both accounts. Money was taken from direct payments and crop insurance and poorly spent on projects that have nothing to do with agriculture, such as salmon recovery in California and to purchase land from a large timber company in Montana. I could not put my stamp of approval on a bill I know fails to meet the needs of Kansas farmers and poorly spends taxpayer dollars.

While I am disappointed with the outcome of the legislation, the measure passed the House and Senate with enough votes to override an expected veto by President Bush. It appears that this legislation will be the farm bill for the next five years. Please share your comments with me about the 2008 Farm Bill.