Sen. Heitkamp Issues Statement on Agriculture Secretary USDA Budget Announcement

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 -- The office of Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-North Dakota, issued the following statement after Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that he would seek to cut the agency's budget by 5 percent despite a farm economy at risk from the Trump administration's trade actions:

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The administration has proposed steep cuts to crop insurance in recent budgets, an indication that USDA may look to cut safety net programs to achieve the five percent cut. Heitkamp, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, fought against those proposed cuts, which received bipartisan criticism.

"With a trade war threatening farm country and an anemic bailout package that doesn't take into account North Dakota's needs and geography, it's shameful to consider throwing our farmers yet another wrench of uncertainty.

"If past budgets from this administration are any indication of what they'll cut, then crop insurance is at risk, which should worry everyone. It's not only bad policy, it sends the wrong message to the farmers who are already bearing the brunt of the administration's reckless trade war. USDA needs to respect rural America and reject these harmful and unnecessary cuts."

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Earlier this year, Heitkamp spoke out against the administration's proposed budget for the 2019 fiscal year, which would have reduced the average premium subsidy for crop insurance from 62 percent to 48 percent and put an income cap on commodity, conservation, and crop insurance subsidies.

Heitkamp helped write, negotiate, and pass the 2014 Farm Bill, which strengthened crop insurance while reducing the deficit by $23 billion and providing five years of certainty for farmers. When crop insurance faced dramatic cuts as part of a budget deal 2015, Heitkamp worked with members of the Agriculture Committee to reverse the cuts and helped pass a bipartisan fix to protect crop insurance and other agricultural programs.

Heitkamp fought to protect crop insurance in the Senate's bipartisan 2018 Farm Bill, and successfully included her provisions to improve other safety net programs like ARC-County.

A member of the Farm Bill conference committee, Heitkamp is pushing to get a bipartisan bill to the president's desk as soon as possible to support North Dakota farmers and ranchers.