Sen. Deb Fischer is confident that a "strong, bipartisan farm bill" will emerge from the U.S. Senate.
The Senate's work on the farm bill is at a pause right now. "There are some issues we need to resolve," Fischer said Tuesday in Grand Island. "We're looking probably at a short-term extension as we move forward. There's no way that we can get a farm bill done by the end of September."
But work continues and Fischer believes that "we're going to be able to get a farm bill done." Senators will then have to work with the House to hone the final product.
As far as the farm bill is concerned, safety net programs "are definitely the priority when we look at crop insurance," she said. "That's what I hear all across the state. That's the No.1 priority — make sure that that's there."
Fischer has some bills that will be included in the farm bill. "A couple of them deal with precision agriculture — all that new technology that's available now and is only going to continue to grow as we have the new technologies" that come along.
People are also reading…
Fischer also has a bill in the farm bill that streamlines disaster payments. "We're really working hard to get that in so that producers get their payments before two years go by," she said.
Fischer and like-minded colleagues are also working to ensure that conservation programs remain voluntary.
"There's kind of a movement out there that these conservation programs should be tied to requirements," she said. Those mandates would require a producer to do something in order to receive "some of the subsidies that come about from different farm programs. I'm against that, and Nebraskans are against that. We are stewards of the land here in Nebraska. Landowners do a nice job, and we want to make sure that those programs remain voluntary."
Fischer was asked about being a U.S. senator in what a reporter called a divided America. She didn't quite agree with the term.
"I think we have a contentious America. We're living in troubled times. People are going to their own camps, and so it's harder to be able to come together. But I can point to a lot of examples in the United States Senate where we do come together."
In addition to making progress on the farm bill, the Senate just passed the National Defense Authorization Act.
That bill came out of the Armed Services committee, of which Fischer is a member. "It came out of committee with only one no vote. It passed the Senate with only 11 no votes. That shows a strong consensus — how we come together to be able to work in a bipartisan way to take care of our military men and women, to be able to provide them with the resources that they need so that they can complete their missions."
Stories like that get lost in all of the social media and Internet chatter, she said.
It's her job to show Nebraskans "that we can stand firm in our principles" but "we have to come together and meet those big challenges we have so that we can protect the security of this country," she said.
Fischer is spending August in Nebraska. She won't return to Washington until after Labor Day.
Fischer, 72, has announced she will seek re-election in 2024. She made that decision after sitting down and talking about it with her husband, she said.
In her position in the Senate, she's "able to have good seniority," which is important. "That's how the Senate runs. I'm second in seniority on the Armed Services Committee. I just was able to get on the Appropriations Committee."
She's the only Republican who serves on both the Armed Services and Appropriations committees. She's also a member of the Commerce and Ag committees.
Being on those committees puts Nebraska at the table, she said. In her position, she can "look at the needs of our state." She can meet those needs and have "a positive impact on our country as well." She wants to continue to take advantage of the opportunity. "I still feel a call to service."
Fischer would like see E-15 ethanol gasoline sold year-round. It would have a "huge, positive impact on the state of Nebraska."
She tells Congressional colleagues from farm states that they need to work together.
She also talked about a bipartisan effort that did not succeed.
The Senate and House have passed congressional review acts, which allow the legislative branch to review regulations that come out of the executive branch.
She sponsored a bill addressing truck emissions. The bill passed the Senate with Democratic support and passed the House.
It addressed some "pretty short-sighted regulations that came out of the administration," she said.
The regulations required truckers to buy costly new trucks. "So in effect, it defeated the purpose because truckers will keep their trucks longer and it'll have more emissions than working through a market-based (solution)," she said
President Joe Biden vetoed the bill, even though it had Democratic support. "And we didn't have 67 votes to override his veto. That's discouraging, when you see bipartisan support for things like that, and an administration who's really not looking at science and the facts that we know are out there."