One Big Beautiful Bill & Idaho Ag - with Sen. Mike Crapo

On August 20^th U.S. Senator Mike Crapo and others in the ag industry held a press conference at Obendorf Farms near Parma to highlight key provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill that benefit Idaho farmers and ranchers.

Verbatim:

U.S. Senator Mike Crapo says the One Big Beautiful Bill is One Big Beautiful win for Idaho farmers and ranchers.

“This bill has made some major changes to boost and strengthen our ability in the agriculture community, in addition to just helping people in general,” said Crapo.

On August 20^th the Senator held a press conference at Obendorf Farms near Parma to highlight key provisions in the bill for the state’s ag industry.

The bill was signed into law July 4^th, and includes items like locking in the 2017 Trump tax rates, doubling the death tax exemption, and ensuring farms and small businesses can stay in the family for generations.

“For our upcoming and younger generations, we provided the opportunity for farmland to pass to the next generation in a process that does not generate taxes if the land is kept in farming,” Crapo said. “That was the first step to help move land between generations if it’s kept in agriculture.”

Crapo said it also supports investment in rural communities by lowering the cost of borrowing for farmers and ranchers, and provides 100% bonus depreciation.

“That means that all farmers and ranchers in Idaho can immediately deduct, immediately deduct the full cost of farm equipment, machinery and vehicles,” said Crapo.

“So I want to talk about what this bill does specifically for the sugar beet industry. The first thing that it does is increase our loan rate up by 29% which is huge. So it went from $25.38 to $32.77 cents per pound and that gives

farmers a more reliable floor in unpredictable markets,” said Samantha Parrott, executive director of the Snake River Sugarbeet Growers Association.     “The one big beautiful bill helps our industry move forward by the following; increasing funding for both the specialty crop research initiative and the specialty crop block grants. For example the SCR funding is boosted from 80 million to 175 million in fiscal year 2026,” said Brock Obendorf, of Obendorf Farms. “This means more research into the disease resistance and new varieties to meet brewers demands as we grow. The bill strengthens our ability to keep growing high quality hops, sustained rural economies and compete in global markets,” said Obendorf.

“With the one big beautiful bill farmers are provided higher coverage rates than previously available through federal crop insurance programs as well as reduced out of pocket premiums. This helps to ensure the family farm can still play a vital role in the production and world when prices fall to below break even levels for extended periods of time,” said Corey Coles, president of the Idaho-Oregon Fruit and Vegetable Association. “This also means we can continue to rely primarily on domestically grown produce that is grown under our food safety protocol as well as with labor that is fairly compensated for their essential work.”

“There's some really key components of the farm bill that was addressed in the big beautiful bill for cattle producers. First is the livestock forage disaster program. They expanded it so it now triggers at four weeks instead of eight weeks which is critical for producers, allowing them to get funding when they really need it. The livestock indemnity program, this one is really important for producers here in the state of Idaho. It now covers 100% of market value for losses by federally protected predators. That's huge here in the state of Idaho,” said Kim Brackett, vice president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

“So I know these might sound like technical changes but for growers it means stability, and that stability helps them grow their operation, invest in equipment, hire workers and it keeps farms in the family for the next generation,” said Parrott.