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Illinois Farm Bureau weighs in on mid-term election results
 
By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The Nov. 8 federal midterm elections will be remembered by many for the predicted “red wave” of Republican gains in Congress that did not materialize. On Friday, Nov. 11, Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) Director of Government Affairs and Commodities Mark Gebhards assessed the early implications of the midterm election results for U.S. agricultural policy moving forward. 
“Next year’s farm bill discussions will have the biggest implications for ag without a doubt. If we make the assumption that House switches to Republican control, you’ll most likely have (GOP Sen.) GT Thompson from Pennsylvania as House Ag Committee chair. If he takes that chairmanship and there is a Republican majority, I think there will be a much different approach in terms of a lot of the climate change initiatives that the Biden administration is working on right now,” Gebhards told Farm World. 
“I think that’s going to slow down some of the dollars flowing into these areas of climate change and carbon sequestration. I think the Republicans will say ‘time out’ on some of that, and take another look at how some of these dollars are being appropriated and spent on these initiatives.”
Gebhards added that it will be “interesting” to see whether less funding is provided for farmer assistance programs within the farm bill’s conservation title, due to the amount of money already being spent encouraging farmers to adopt conservation practices through the recent Inflation Reduction Act.
“One thing that’s good for (farmers) is that keeping good risk management tools in the commodity title should continue, whether the Republicans are in place or not. This has been a priority of ours. There’s always a battle about the dollars and people who want to shift the dollars to other areas, but I think at least in the House Agriculture Committee this will be something they will be able to protect,” he said. 
Illinois Farm Bureau leaders are somewhat concerned about the loss of two key advocates for agriculture, Rep. Rodney Davis and Rep. Cheri Bustos, from Congress. Davis, a Republican who was defeated in the June primary by Rep. Mary Miller, was a key member of the House Agriculture Committee for four terms. Bustos, a Democrat who served on the House Agriculture Committee and the House Committee on Appropriations, elected not to run for a third term in Congress. 
Miller won her Nov. 8 election against Democrat Paul Lange for Illinois’ 15th District congressional seat. Democrat Eric Sorenson, who ran for Bustos’ open seat, was successful in his bid for the 17th Illinois District seat against Republican Esther Joy King.
“(Davis and Bustos) were very instrumental as members of the House Ag Committee. We have new representatives elected from those districts in addition to Democrat Nicki Budzinski in District 13. We have a good relationship with Nicki Budzinski and know her well from her time on Governor Pritzker’s staff, and we hope to continue that. We do not know at this point if she is going to be on the House Ag Committee, but we would love to see that happen,” said Gebhards, adding that of the four new members of Illinois’ congressional delegation, Sorenson is perhaps the least-known to IFB leaders.
“We haven’t had a lot of contact with him,” he said. “The 17th is a fairly large agricultural district, but I don’t really know if he’ll try for the ag committee. We have talked with some of our incumbents including Congresswoman Mary Miller (R-15th), and she intends to remain on the ag committee. But it remains to be seen who else tries to get on the ag committee from Illinois.”
The IFB will undertake a formal outreach process to the staff of the new Illinois lawmakers to attempt to set up introductory meetings with farm bureau leaders and members, according to Gebhards.
Farmers could expect some action regarding ag policy during the upcoming congressional lame-duck session should Republicans shift the balance of power in the House, he said. As far as funding the government through the appropriations process, Gebhards expects to see another continuing resolution from Congress. He’s more hopeful that Congress will offer intervention to prevent a major U.S. rail union strike in December, when an extension to negotiations will expire.  
“With the barge transportation issues on the Mississippi River, we’re really concerned (a strike) could back things up in a really bad way. This is not a lame duck issue per se, but it is certainly an issue in which we’d like to see government intervention,” said Gebhards.
At the state level, Illinois continued its “blue wave” of voting with a sweep of all top state offices — including those of governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer and comptroller. Gebhards acknowledged that the administration of Gov. JB Pritzker had done an overall good job of addressing the policy needs of Illinois farmers and rural citizens during Pritzker’s first term. He also praised Pritzker’s selection of Jerry Costello II as director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture. 
“We’ve been very pleased with the way we’ve been able to work with the agriculture department under Governor Pritzker and Jerry Costello’s leadership as director. An example of that includes last year when the farm bureau, along with the livestock commodity organizations, requested additional dollars go into the department of ag budget to hire more field veterinarians to help us be more prepared in the event of a foreign animal disease outbreak. $750,000 was put into their budget to hire up to five veterinarians,” Gebhards said. 
“Another example includes the governor’s agreement to continue the sales tax exemption on agricultural machinery. We’ve had a good working relationship with the governor’s office and the department of agriculture, and we look to continue those associations.”
11/16/2022