Ag News

GFB members carry stories of struggle to D.C.

The annual Georgia Farm Bureau Presidents’ trip to Washington, D.C., provided GFB members with an important opportunity to interact directly with members of the Georgia congressional delegation, as it does every year. This time around, they carried a particularly weighty burden.

A group of 28 GFB leaders from county chapters and the state board visited Washington March 3-5, sharing stories of the different ways they’re running into barriers to success, from rising input costs to international trade challenges and a variety of things in between. The elevator speech version was this: Farming that is not profitable is not sustainable, and farmers and ranchers need help.

On March 3, the GFB group heard presentations from American Farm Bureau Federation staff during an after-lunch briefing covering, trade, labor costs, the farm bill, water and more.

The meeting included an impromptu visit from Alabama Farmers Federation President Jimmy Parnell, who was in town for an AFBF board meeting also attended by GFB President Tom McCall.

On March 4, GFB leaders took to Capitol Hill to visit members of the Georgia congressional delegation. The group met with Reps. Barry Loudermilk, Austin Scott, Buddy Carter, Rick Allen, Brian Jack and Mike Collins, Sen. Jon Ossoff and staff for Rep. Andrew Clyde and Sen. Raphael Warnock, as well as staff aides for the Senate Agriculture Committee.

The GFB group shared messages about the farm bill, disaster assistance, farm labor and trade, with the overriding mission of focusing attention on farmers’ need for profitability. Discussions included recent developments related to U.S. military operations in the Middle East. GFB members pointed out that diesel prices jumped by 85 cents per gallon virtually overnight, compounding already dire financial conditions for farmers.

By coincidence, Morgan County Farm Bureau Director Rachel Kinsaul visited D.C. at the same time. Kinsaul, the 2025 Georgia Teacher of the Year and a finalist for the National Teacher of the Year, was in D.C. for an interview as part of the national award process. While there, she visited with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. The National Teacher of the Year will be announced this spring. GFB President Tom McCall and his wife, Jane, and AFBF President Zippy Duvall and his wife, Jennifer, joined Kinsaul in her meeting with Rollins.

AFBF Briefings

Farm Bill

AFBF Government Affairs Director Brian Glenn gave the farm bill briefing. Coincidentally on March 3, the House Agriculture Committee began markup on the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026. Markup is where the committee considers changes to the bill before passing it on to the full House.

The bill addresses farm bill titles that were not addressed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“This is everything that was not updated. They weren’t able to get everything done in the One Big Beautiful Bill because [the] reconciliation [process] has some guardrails on what you can actually do in that process,” Glenn said.

Glenn said AFBF has several priorities for a modernized five-year farm bill, including federal loan programs, rural development, research and Extension, forestry and energy. He also mentioned policy-related provisions, noting the example of California’s Proposition 12, which bans pork produced using certain animal welfare practices from being sold in the state.

“China outspends us on ag research two to one,” Glenn said. “We need smart policy that moves us forward, gets us that technology, that innovation that moves us forward. So, this bill really focuses a lot on that.”

Trade

AFBF Senior Director of Government Affairs Dave Salmonsen discussed trade and tariffs. While the United States has reached trade agreements with a number of nations over the past year, Salmonsen emphasized that China’s influence over agricultural trade cannot be overstated.

In October 2025, the U.S. and China agreed to delay additional tariffs for one year. The U.S. tariffs on imported goods from China were reduced from 59% to 49%, while the China tariffs on imports from the U.S. were reduced to 21.9%. Port fees were delayed, and China committed to buying 12 million metric tons of soybeans in 2025 and 25 million metric tons annually moving forward.

Salmonsen pointed out that tariffs are the Trump administration’s tool of choice to generate revenue, create leverage to achieve economic and non-economic objectives and reindustrialize the U.S. economy. The administration has faced legal challenges and on multiple points has been rebuffed by U.S. courts.

The U.S. last had an ag trade surplus in 2021, though Salmonsen said the deficits since then are based more on value than on volume.

“Up to that time, we always sold more than we imported,” Salmonsen said. “But we know our prices have been the last several years. So when you measure things by value, the value of our exports has gone down. Not really the volumes. Other than China, the world's pretty much buying what they've always bought from us.”

Labor

AFBF Director of Government of Affairs John Walt Boatright discussed agricultural labor and farmers' costs associated with it. Movement in Congress on migrant labor has been slow to materialize, with some in Congress saying they wouldn’t address it until the border was secure.

Boatright reviewed a series of federal rules related to immigration and labor and where they stood:

• The methodology the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) used to determine the Adverse Effect Wage Rate is under a nationwide injunction.

• The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s fee schedule and changes to certain other immigration benefit request requirements is still in effect.

•  The DOL Overtime Pay Rule is on hold.

• The OSHA Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process is still in place.

• The DOL Independent Contractor Rule is no longer being enforced.

• Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agricultural Employment in the United States  that took effect June 28, 2024, is under a proposal to be rescinded following court decisions.  

• The  rule that took effect Jan. 17, 2025, modernizing H-2A program requirements, oversight, and worker protections is still in place.

• The OSHA proposed heat standard is still pending.

Waters of the United States

AFBF Senior Director of Government Affairs Courtney Briggs reviewed the latest developments on the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. Notably, the definition of WOTUS is significantly narrowed under an EPA Interim Final Rule currently undergoing the regulatory review process. The new definition takes into consideration the seasonal moisture variations by geographic area.

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