The Yankee group visited people in eight Congressional offices:
- Adrienne Wojciechowski in Sen. Patrick Leahy’s Office
- Leah Drew in Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Office
- Emily Lynch in Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s Office
- Erica Anhalt in Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s Office
- Rep. Bill Owens and Nell Maceda
- Rep. Peter Welch and Bob Rogan
- Rep. Ann McLane Kuster and Blake Anderson
- Tony Hobbs in Rep. Carol Shea-Porter’s Office
Our main message this year was an update on how Yankee Farm Credit is meeting the needs of our members by providing constructive credit that grew our diverse loan portfolio by 13%. In addition, Yankee Farm Credit paid $4.9 million in patronage refunds to member-customers by maintaining excellent financial results. The message was well received. In addition, the Congressional Offices were keenly interested in Yankee Farm Credit’s involvement and success with the FarmStart program serving beginning, young and small farmers.
The Senate had passed a Farm Bill the previous week and the House version of the Farm Bill was on the floor. Representatives were encouraged to pass out of the House a Farm Bill in order to get a bill into Conference Committee. The message included the need to establish through a Farm Bill the future policies and direction of agriculture on which our members could plan. The Farm Bill in the House was defeated on June 20th by 195 yes to 234 no votes.
Other issues mentioned were the need to maintain a strong crop insurance program, the importance of the Farm Service Agency’s Loan Guarantee program, and immigration reform that would improve farm labor by stabilizing the labor force now and creating a provision for foreign labor going forward. Each office was provided with a copy of the Association Insider and Yankee Farm Credit Annual Report.
While in DC the group also visited with Jeff Shipp and Robbie Boone of the Farm Credit Council and Sarah Tyree of CoBank.
Note from George Putnam: Thanks to Senior Loan Officer Dave Lane for representing Yankee Farm Credit, together with three directors and Bob Smith, and for writing the above report.
