BISMARCK, N.D. – Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring met with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue as well as Senator John Hoeven, Senator Kevin Cramer and Congressman Kelly Armstrong on a recent trip to Washington to discuss a variety of issues related to agriculture.
“I am grateful to Secretary Perdue for taking time to discuss topics of importance to our farmers and ranchers,” Goehring said. “I thanked him for extending the deadline for agricultural producers to apply for payments under the Market Facilitation Program, as farmers have been unable to apply during the shutdown.”
Goehring said some other topics of discussion with Secretary Perdue were:
- Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) loans
- Farm Service Agency liens on commodities from the sale of livestock and grain
- The importance of the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS) and the reports that provide timely information about exports and stocks
- Implementation of the Farm Bill, including industrial hemp
- Workforce development and farm labor
- The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and farm inspections
- The importance of ratifying the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)
“Even with some of the USDA staff currently out, Secretary Perdue assured me that undersecretaries and key staff are putting together a framework for implementation of the Farm Bill,” Goehring said. “When staff are back in, they will get the technical pieces put together to complete implementation.”
Goehring also met with Senators Hoeven and Cramer and Congressman Armstrong.
“I thank our congressional delegation for their assistance on these priorities,” Goehring said. “They’ve been working diligently on these issues and I appreciate all that they’ve done.”