New Mexico congressman partners with Sen. Cory Booker on legislation to help farmers
Mar. 27—A New Mexico congressman is partnering with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker on legislation to force the U.S. Department of Agriculture to honor its contracts with farmers and farming organizations.
Booker, a Democrat, introduced the Honor Farmer Contracts Act on Thursday in the Senate, and Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., introduced a companion bill in the House to release withheld funding for signed contracts and agreements with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The legislation comes after the USDA paused payments for some programs and canceled others over the last two months. Vasquez's office pointed specifically to a Community Food Project grant frozen for Frontier Food Hub in Silver City and Santa Fe-based Quivira Coalition's Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities funding getting frozen.
"When farmers sign contracts, they expect the government to follow through. It's that simple. This bill will immediately unfreeze critical funding, ensure farmers are paid for their work, and reopen essential USDA offices that were shuttered without notice," Vasquez said in a statement.
The bill is one of several recently introduced that draw attention to the ways the Trump administration has upset government norms, including a bill Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., introduced Thursday with Rep. Dave Min, D-Calif., to ensure that special government employees like tech billionaire Elon Musk are subject to transparency and accountability requirements.
The Honor Farmer Contracts Act would require USDA to pay farmers all past-due payments as quickly as possible and prohibit the agency from canceling contracts with farmers or organizations that assist farmers unless they fail to meet the conditions of the contract.
It would also prohibit USDA from closing Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service offices and Rural Development Service Centers without 60 days notice and justification to Congress. Two county Farm Service Agency offices in New Mexico have lease terminations listed on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) website in Clovis and Roswell, but the Curry County Farm Service Agency in Clovis and the Chaves County Farm Service Agency in Roswell are still operating. USDA did not immediately provide an explanation for the offices' inclusion on the DOGE site.
The legislation has support from at least 352 farm and food groups, including more than a dozen based in New Mexico, such as Agri-Cultura Cooperative Network, New Mexico Farmers' Marketing Association, Shiprock Traditional Farmers Cooperative and New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy Council.
"As the most productive season of the year approaches, farmers and rural communities cannot afford further delays — without urgent action to reinstate these contracts, farms and organizations risk laying off workers, missing the planting season, or shutting down entirely," a letter from the hundreds of farming organizations reads.
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