EUREKA, Ill. — Congressman Darin LaHood (R-Ill. 16th) often says he has around 750,000 employers in his sprawling 16th Congressional District, which ranges from Peoria and Bloomington-Normal in central Illinois north to Rockford and west to Galena. On Tuesday, May 30, the Dunlap, Illinois, representative met with a couple of dozen of his “bosses” in the small farming town of Eureka in Woodford County to talk about the debt ceiling, China and the 2023 Farm Bill.

Though he voted “no” to raising the national debt ceiling due to what he deemed out-of-control spending by the Biden administration, Lahood correctly predicted that a compromise would be approved by the House of Representatives. When the debt ceiling issue is put to rest, Lahood said, it will be time for farm bill authors to get to work determining U.S. farm policy for the coming five years.

“I do think we will resolve the debt ceiling situation, and the farm bill has to be passed by the end of this year,” Lahood told members of the Eureka Rotary Club during their monthly luncheon at Eureka Christian Church. “I’m optimistic this will happen. I want to remind folks that agriculture is the number one industry in the state of Illinois. We lead the nation in soybean production and we’re second in corn production. Agribusiness is also very influential in the state, so the farm bill is very important to us.”

Among the important aspects of the 2023 Farm Bill: funding for river infrastructure such as locks and dams on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, according to LaHood. “There are a lot of good reasons why we need to pass a farm bill. Five years ago when I was a part of that we got it done, but there will be some trials and tribulations. It has to be bipartisan because of the makeup of Congress right now,” he said.

“Most of our farm policy — I’d say 90 percent — is bipartisan. There will be 10 percent that will be a bit of a struggle. The farm bill has our food programs in there— SNAP and welfare benefits — that I feel need to be reformed. But you have to be careful. If you gut those too much, you’re going to lose the Democratic support you are going to need for a bipartisan bill.”

According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, in fiscal year 2021 more than 41 million Americans participated in SNAP with a total cost of more than $113 billion. In FY2022, SNAP costs were projected to increase by 18 percent, largely due to the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) update, which was authorized in the 2018 Farm Bill. Federal nutrition assistance programs, including SNAP, serve one in four Americans.

LaHood noted that he is concerned not only about proper funding for this year’s farm bill, but also the possibility of future lawmakers decoupling the food and nutrition title from farm policy. 

“You’ve got to remember that there are less and less people in Congress who are from rural America. Back 30 or 40 years ago half of the members came from rural America, so they understood what a yield was, what the RFS was, what crop insurance was. Today, I work with a lot of smart, bright people who have no idea what ag policy is. There is an education and advocacy aspect to this that is at a whole new level, and that is problematic for the future,” said LaHood, whose 16th District has been identified as the eighth-largest agricultural district in the nation in terms of corn and soybean production.

In addition to being a source of much of the nation’s corn and soybean production, farmers in LaHood’s district produce around 94 percent of the world’s supply of canned pumpkins. As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, LaHood is committed to creating more markets for Illinois farm products.

“I joined the committee to be able to advocate for my district and for farmers on trade issues. About 40 percent of the corn and soybeans in my area goes to the export market and goes downriver on barges, so creating more markets and customers for farmers is very important,” he said.

During his brief luncheon address, LaHood also touched on the threat to the U.S. posed by China. As a member of the powerful House Intelligence Committee and the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which was formed just this year, LaHood has unique insight. 

As for a possible future Cold War with China, the congressman said that such a move would be costly to U.S. agriculture and manufacturing interests. For instance, Caterpillar, Inc., which has 29 manufacturing plants and four research and development sites in China, employs around 12,000 workers in its central Illinois manufacturing plants and associated facilities. 

“You don’t find a more American company than Caterpillar that is heavily invested with China and the CCP,” said LaHood, “so when we talk about decoupling or going into a Cold War are we willing to have Caterpillar stock go way down or, with our farmers, (the loss of) up to 30 percent of our soybeans that are exports that go to China? If our farmers get cut off from that market, farmers are going to be hurting and we are going to feel that economic impact. 

“Maybe that’s worth it when we take on the Chinese, but there are complications with going into a Cold War with China that we have to think about. That’s what we’re doing on this committee-- trying to figure out how to counteract China and get ahead of them through policy solutions in a bipartisan way.”