Mar. 30—MONTICELLO — U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski hopes to see some movement on the next five-year farm bill when she returns to Washington, D.C., in April.

The Springfield Democrat met with an Agriculture Advisory Council made up of regional stakeholders Friday morning at Monticello’s Livingston Center to discuss progress on the legislation — or, as she noted, lack thereof.

However, she said that, “I still remain very optimistic that we can get a bipartisan farm bill done.”

Budzinski, whose 13th Congressional District snakes from the eastern St. Louis suburbs northwest through Springfield and Decatur to Champaign-Urbana, serves on the House Agriculture Committee, which is tasked with drafting the next version of the five-year bill, her press office said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the 2018 farm bill was extended late last year so that authorized programs can continue through Sept. 30, 2024.

“I go back to Washington on April 8, where I do expect hopefully to see some text of the farm bill when I get back,” Budzinski said.

Her priorities include crop insurance, conservation funding, incentives to help young farmers, developments in ag tech, pushing back against proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and investing in research.

As part of the push for research investment, Budzinski is seeking to get the America Grows Act passed.

“It’s bicameral, bipartisan,” she said. “And if you’re unfamiliar with it, it would basically just say that we’re going to be increasing our investment in agricultural research by 5 percent consecutively each year over the next 10 years. I think that’s so important for all of the great work we do in research within central Illinois.”

She added that she believes investing in research is essential to ensuring that the United States can compete in the global marketplace.

Budzinski also sought the advisory council’s input on pieces of the bill that are most important to its members and what concerns they might have if it was further delayed.

Stephen Wald, director of external communications and government relations for the University of Illinois’ College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, said one of the university’s priorities is the Research Facilities Act, which provides funding for colleges to invest in research infrastructure. There is currently $2 million per year allocated to the program for the entire country, he said.

“When the farm bill stays the same, that fund stays the same,” Wald said. “Meaningful funding in that line would be a game-changer.”

For former Illinois Department of Agriculture Director Rebecca Doyle, one of her major needs as a farmer is labor.

“We don’t really need educated people, no offense,” she said. “We need people who show up to work and are willing to do some dirty work.”

Doyle went on to ask Budzinski to “please fix immigration.”

In discussing the issue, the congresswoman said that while a lot of focus is on securing the border, there is also a need for more asylum officers and immigration judges in order to process people.

“You won’t fix one without the other,” Budzinski said.

Rodney Weinzierl, executive director of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, described what farmers need in one word: certainty. Having a new farm bill passed would allow them to plan for the future and manage the “severe downtown” that the industry is facing, he said.

“Having certainty in a farm bill is more important than, to a certain extent, what’s in there,” Weinzierl said.