No Certainty on Farm Bill, as Dem Votes Needed for Passage
Published: Friday, August 22, 2025
Area farmers heard an update on farm policies from U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym (R-District 2) last Wednesday during an Indiana Farm Bureau Shop Talk at Lichtenbarger Farms in South Bend. Key topics discussed include the farm bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill, the ag economy and the Make America Healthy Again initiative.
Yakym said the current farm bill draft includes everything that was requested for Hoosier farmers.
"I would like to see a farm bill passed," he said as he acknowledged that the current farm bill expires on Sept. 30.
When asked about legislative fixes to Prop 12, Yakym said that although the Supreme Court did not overturn it, the law can still be addressed by Congress.
"The legislative vehicle to use is the farm bill, but we need Democratic votes to support it," he said.
Concerning the farm bill, event host Rick Lichtenbarger said, "It sounds like they've got an uphill battle coming because too many of them don't like the stuff that's in it, like crop insurance. I hope it gets passed."
Matt Hayden, INFB District 1 director, shared his doubts about the passing of the farm bill in 2025.
"It doesn't sound like it's very likely," he said following the Q&A session with Yakym. "We need a lot of educating of a lot of politicians and even Republicans."
Lichtenbarger summed up Yakym's visit with his top takeaways.
"Some of the stuff in the (One) Big Beautiful Bill was a positive that it became permanent: the 199A, the $15 million per person and $30 million per couple (death tax threshold) to pass stuff to the next generation," he said. "(But) we've got to do something to export more grain to get our profits back up."
Yakym's report on some policies passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill, highlighted some of the policies of interest among Hoosier farmers. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, he was able to weigh in on 90 of the 130 tax issues encompassed by the One Big Beautiful Bill. Some wins he counts for Indiana include:
• Additional support for crop insurance;
• Additional support for research;
• A permanent extension of lower individual rates;
• A renewed and permanently extended 199-A deduction for qualified business income;
• Acceleration of the depreciation of cap expenditure and renewal at 100% capacity with a permanent extension;
• Elevated the threshold for the death tax to $15 million individually and $30 million per couple and adjusted it to inflation; and
• A cut in over $1 trillion of federal spending.
Yakym's goal in the bill is to offer certainty to farmers on the tax front in time to inform decisions on farm purchases, estate structures, capital investment, planting.
But farmers were unsure that the tax breaks were enough to get them through the next harvest. Yakym was asked how farmers can see the benefit of the tax breaks when operating a loss in the fields in a tight agricultural economy with restrictive policies.
"I think there's two components," Yakym answered. "You're right on the tax front, and you're also right on the profitability front. When I think of profitability, I think of this in two layers: one is the cost of inputs, and the other is price that you're selling."
The input Yakym focused on is energy. He said diesel fuel and fertilizer are among the top expenses for farmers. His strategy is to ease the permit process for new energy-saving resources.
"We have to get the federal government out of the way to lower the cost of energy," he said.
Second, Yakym said tight commodities can be alleviated by opening up fair-market trade. One issue blocking that, he said, is non-tariff trade boundaries in countries that may not recognize U.S. food codes. Another hurdle in the agriculture trade realm is product quality.
"Our farmers from the United States, on a fair and level playing field, can compete with anybody. You all have the most efficient growing processes in the world," he said.
Yakym said prospective trade partners are declining deals due to worries that U.S. products will undercut the profits of domestic items.
Farmers also asked for an update on MAHA following their feedback on the first report. MAHA is a government initiative aimed to instill more healthy habits in the American lifestyle and emphasize safe food products from planting to the plate. The second report was due to drop last Tuesday but was delayed. Farmers had given feedback concerning issues with the report's stance on pesticide and seed oils and the accuracy of the data behind it.
"I have spoken directly with Secretary Kennedy on this and said, 'Look, let's just make sure that whatever we're doing, we're taking a science-based approach to everything that we do,'" Yakym said.
He also said it is important to maintain open communication with and feedback from farmers and called ag professionals to be vigilant in sending feedback on MAHA reports.
Other topics covered in the shop talk include: solar energy, the Republican-Democrat dynamics in Washington, prioritization of tax items, H-2A, the Russia-Ukraine war, and Yakym's future aspirations.
The shop talk was one of several stops on Yakym's One Big Beautiful Hoosier Tour during his August recess.
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