Pa. House, Senate Republicans tout looming completion of package of pro-farmer bills

With Farm Show milkshakes in hand (of course), Republican leaders in the state House and Senate gathered in the Capitol rotunda on Wednesday to tout a package of bills that they say reiterates the Legislature’s commitment to Pennsylvania farmers.

“I laid out a challenge to my colleagues and to the governor to really step up and help agriculture,” Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, said of the 13-bill package that will be finished by week’s end. “Everyone has stepped up.”

The bills run the gamut, from a measure allowing wider agricultural vehicles on the state’s roads to giving tax credits to farmers who lease or sell some of their land to new farmers. The Senate gave its approval in early May to a wide-ranging suite of proposals, PennLive reported.

Some of the bills were sparked by a wide-ranging package of priorities set out by Gov. Tom Wolf in February. The proposal, dubbed the “PA Farm Bill,” included supports for dairy farmers who have buffeted by an unstable market, workforce development efforts to encourage farm employment, and encouraging farmers to adopt best-management practices on conservation.

“There is no smarter long-term investment than Pennsylvania’s farmers,” said House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, who worked part-time at a dairy farm while he was in high school.

A summary of the legislation, prepared by House Republicans, indicates the bills would:

• “amend the Agricultural Area Security Law to allow farmers more discretion regarding the construction and subdivision of residences on preserved farmland.
• exempt milk haulers from travel bans put in place during inclement weather and other emergency declarations.
•  rename the current Healthy Farms Healthy Schools program as the Farm-to-School Program and make improvements to the program.
• create the Agriculture Rapid Response Disaster Readiness program to respond to diseases, pests, invasive species, declared disasters and other threats to the agriculture industry.
• create the Very Small Meat Processor Federal Inspection Reimbursement Grant Program to help these businesses comply with federal inspection standards.
• revise the Agriculture Linked Investment Program for the implementation of agricultural and conservation best management practices.
• establish the existing Dairy Investment Program in state law to support research and development, transition to organic, marketing projects and value-added process projects in the dairy industry.”

Corman and Cutler were joined by the chairs of the House and Senate Agriculture committees, Rep. Martin Causer, R-McKean, and Sen. Elder Vogel, R-Beaver.

In brief remarks, Causer, who helped shepherd the bills through the House, called the legislation “an investment … in future generation of farmers.” Vogel, a fourth-generation dairy farmer, called the bills “an unprecedented success,” that was result of a “bicameral effort to put farmers first.”

In a statement released in February alongside his agriculture plan, Wolf said that his proposal was “about providing more opportunities to our farmers by creating more jobs, more income and more hope.”