17th District Congressional Candidates: The Farm Bill
By: Matthew Fuchs
Updated: November 2, 2012
In the race for the 17th congressional district seat, Republican Bobby Schilling is facing Democrat Cheri Bustos.
Our question: What's in the farm bill that will help central Illinois farmers?
Cheri Bustos:
Well I
think - let's look at the environment at this point of what's happening with
the farm bill. As we sit here and talk about this right now, congress is in the
middle of a five week taxpayer-paid vacation. Yet they left Washington without
passing a farm bill. You know, this is the middle of one of the worst droughts
we've ever liver through - arguably back to 1956. Or even back to 1936 - one of
the worst droughts ever.
But they couldn't pass this five year farm
bill that in the past received bipartisan support. So I think it's a reflection
of this dysfunctional congress that we haven't gotten to this point. We need to
make sure that farmers have the right insurance available to them, and living
through this drought, making sure the family farmer can come out whole.
Bobby Schilling:
The
one thing that's in there that would greatly help farmers in central Illinois
and across the United States is a good, solid insurance - crop insurance. It's
one of the biggest things.
We had a hearing in Galesburg, Illinois, one of four in the U.S.A. The number one thing we heard was, "please, make sure we have good crop insurance so that we can buy our tractors and get loans, and buy more seed for next year."
