Iowa’s representatives in the U.S. Senate and House voted with the majority late Friday night into Saturday morning to pass the American Relief Act, 2025 . President Joe Biden signed the package into law Saturday.
Along with continued funding for federal agencies and programs through March 14, 2025, the new legislation extends the Farm Bill and provides disaster relief and economic assistance to farmers.
The Farm Bill covers price and income support for commodities, conservation, nutrition programs for low-income families, as well as rural development and research. Congress typically renegotiates the massive legislative package every five years. This is the second one-year extension for the 2018 Farm Bill, which expired again in September.
The American Relief Act allocated $10 billion for one-time emergency payments to farmers burned by low commodity prices and high production costs. Billions more are earmarked for farm losses caused by natural disasters in the last two years.