Securing Kansas Ag Priorities in the Farm Bill

On Friday, Sen. Jerry Moran joined Greg Akagi on WIBW Ag Radio and Chip Flory on AgriTalk to discuss the latest developments on the Farm Bill with the markup scheduled for this Thursday in the Senate Agriculture Committee and the importance of advancing priorities critical to Kansas agriculture. When he meets with Kansas farmers and ranchers, he hears firsthand about the challenges they are facing, including high input costs, ongoing drought conditions and uncertainty in the agriculture economy. Passing this legislation will provide certainty for rural America and Kansas farmers and ranchers.

As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. Moran has worked to make certain the Farm Bill includes priorities that strengthen Kansas agriculture, and he is working to include his legislation to permanently transfer the administration of the Food for Peace program from the Department of State to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This legislation also includes a number of provisions that will benefit producers and rural communities in Kansas, such as:

• Year-round E15 sales, which expands markets for Kansas farmers and ethanol producers, supports American energy independence and provides consumers with more affordable options at the pump
• The CRP Improvement and Flexibility Act, increasing flexibility for livestock grazing on conservation lands
• The Rural Hospital Revitalization Act, which would provide no interest loans for constructing or renovating rural healthcare facilities
• The Farm to Fly Act, allowing sustainable aviation fuel to qualify for USDA energy programs
• The Colonel Gary LaGrange AgVets Act, which would expand career opportunities in agriculture for veterans
• Language to increase FSA loan limits to better reflect lending conditions in farm country
• Doubled funding for USDA trade promotion programs, better allowing producers to market their products globally

You can listen to Sen. Moran’s interviews on Agri-Talk and WIBW Ag Radio.

Introducing Legislation to Strengthen Rural Kansas Hospitals & Providers

This week, Sen. Moran introduced bipartisan legislation with Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) to expand access to federal resources for rural hospitals through the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) Medicare designation. The legislation, the Rural Emergency Hospital Designation Improvement Act (REH 2.0), would allow more Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) and rural hospitals at risk of closure to sustain health care services in rural communities, and it would make technical improvements to strengthen the designation.

Sen. Moran worked to help establish the REH designation through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, providing eligible rural hospitals with a pathway to convert and continue serving their communities with limited services rather than closing their doors. He has visited every hospital in Kansas numerous times, and during these visits, providers shared their recommendations for strengthening the designation so it can better support the struggling health care facilities it was originally intended to serve.

The legislation introduced this week is the direct result of what Sen. Moran has heard from rural hospitals and providers in Kansas, and it makes needed improvements to the program to help make certain patients can continue to access critical health care services in their communities for years to come.

You can read more about the legislation from the Topeka Capital-Journal.