Kat Cammack says Florida ‘made out like bandits’ in Farm Bill

It has been a lengthy process preparing a farm bill in Congress. But when the House Agriculture Committee advanced its version of the agriculture-focused legislation, U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack said Florida growers emerged as winners.

“Oh my goodness, we made out like bandits,” the Gainesville Republican told Florida Politics.

The Farm, Food, and National Security Act (HR 7567) cleared the Committee on a 34-17 vote, with seven Democrats joining all Republicans on the panel.

Cammack this year was the only Florida lawmaker serving on the House Agriculture Committee, and in the past cautioned that the Sunshine State had “the most to lose as a delegation if we don’t get this right.”

But the Gainesville Republican feels confident Florida got what it could in lengthy negotiations.

She secured an extension of citrus greening research through 2031 and also got provisions for disaster and marketplace disruption payments to be based on real sales data.

Crop insurance for specialty crops will be better coordinated with producers, and the bill includes investment in rural broadband and forestry innovation, while also getting protections for a sugar loan program.

“Listen, there’s always going to be more that we can push for. There’s never going to be a bill that is perfect that I just go, ‘I can’t improve upon this in any way,’” Cammack said. “But given the political dynamics, margins in the House, external forces outside of our control, I honestly can’t think of much more that we could have pushed for, and despite us having the least amount of representation as a state on the Committee.”

Notably, the Farm Bill is supposed to be renewed every five years, and was supposed to clear Congress in 2023. But the House and Senate could not reach an agreement in the last Congress or most of this one. The Senate has yet to pass its own version of the farm bill even now.

Putting it off meant Cammack lost the only other Florida voice on the Committee when U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, a Kissimmee Democrat, left the panel. But she has remained in close contact on agricultural issues with Florida colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

“I’m really proud of the fact that we’ve been able to come together as a delegation and the delegation has trusted me to carry those priorities forward,” she said.

“I feel quite confident that I can carry the weight of Florida’s needs. Even though I’m solo on the Committee, I have great support from the delegation. And I think we’re very strong as a delegation.”

She pointed to a Tree Assistance Program’s expansion that will be especially important to the vital timber industry in Florida.

She noted that the state earned some wins even before the Farm Bill was passed. Because of the protracted legislative process, Congress tackled certain matters, like Republican-desired changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill signed by President Donald Trump this year.

SNAP typically accounts for more than three-quarters of spending associated with the farm bill, so handling that politically charged discussion separately allowed more common ground to be found among lawmakers on the Agriculture Committee, Cammack said.

“It really brought the political temperature down, and there was a lot of effort focused on production agriculture,” Cammack said.

Democrats who voted against the bill focused on impacts of tariffs on U.S. agriculture.

Cammack noted that Florida also secured wins outside the Farm Bill, like a U.S. Department of Agriculture review of brix levels in orange juice, something sought by Florida citrus with bipartisan support in Congress for years.