U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) today highlighted his priorities for the farm bill ahead of the conference committee's first meeting on Wednesday, September 5th. Davis, a member of the House Agriculture Committee, was named to the House-Senate conference committee for the farm bill tasked with resolving the differences between the House and Senate passed bills.
"The farm bill is important to my district because the 13th district of Illinois is made up of not just our farmers and producers, but small agri-business related companies and some of our agri-business giants in the global trading world. What happens on our farms impacts our ability to create jobs in central Illinois.
"My biggest priority going into the conference committee is to protect crop insurance. The crop insurance based risk management program that the farm bill has become has saved taxpayers potentially billions of dollars when compared to the old disaster declaration process. It's a good public-private partnership that needs to be maintained and that's my highest priority in the farm bill.
"I want America to know that the House farm bill includes historic investments in families who are stuck in the cycle of poverty. Unemployment today is at a historic low, one of the lowest in my lifetime, 3.8%.
"We're investing in the House bill, a billion dollars a year, to get families out of poverty, into our schools, into our training programs, to take the good-paying jobs that I know are available in rural America because I live in rural America."
