NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas First District Congressman Tracey Mann has been doing town halls across the state while home for the Independence Day holiday.
"The thing that comes up over and over again is the border is just top of mind for people as it should be, you know, this wide open southern border is an absolute chaotic debacle, everybody's seen it for what it is," Mann said. "The other thing is inflation is still hitting people, you know, across our economy, people that are on fixed incomes, our seniors are especially impacted by that."
Also, continuing work on the Farm Bill is an emphasis in the counties Mann visits.
"Why are we even doing this in the first place? Mann asked, rhetorically. "Why do we have five-year farm bills? It's got to be long enough to provide some certainty for producers but short enough that it can adjust and change with the times and the bill that we passed out of the House Committee, I'm on the Ag Committee, I proudly voted for it. That was a really good bill, fiscally conservative bill that stewards taxpayer dollars well and that puts taxpayer dollars in places that we see high return on investment. A really good bill passed out of the House. We need the Senate to do their work, pass out their bill and then for those bills to come together and get them past those floors and signed into law."
Mann said they will get a good farm bill out, even if it takes longer than it already has.
"Worst case scenario is we pass a bad bill," We just can't, we'll not let that happen. Don't forget that crop insurance is mandatory which means crop insurance even if our bill expires or as it expires you know will stay in place and crop insurance is such an important risk management tool for our ag producers. A lot of other important things as well though so we got to get a five-year bill done that locks in certainty for our producers."
The current farm bill extension ends September 30.
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