Policy Updates and Issue News October 2025
Agriculture and Food
Farm aid package remains elusive
Past news reports have continued to stress that markets for soybeans, corn, wheat, and sorghum are in the tank. Tariffs have caused the loss of traditional foreign buyers, and tariffs have caused the prices on imported farm supplies to skyrocket. President Trump wants to use tariff revenue to bail out farmers and ranchers harmed by trade wars. However, legal experts believe he will need help from Congress. The administration is looking at using a Depression-era law known as Section 32, which is funded through tariffs. Section 32 is traditionally used to buy commodities for nutrition assistance programs, but the law also authorizes using it to pay farmers to restore their purchasing power. However, Section 32 is capped at $350 million, which is far below what the President will need for a farm bailout. Another option is to make payments through the Commodity Credit Corporation’s (CCC) authority, which the USDA used to make the $23 billion in Market Facilitation Program payments to farmers in 2018 and 2019. Congress would have to refresh the CCC account, however, because USDA has only a few billion dollars in the CCC account.
Government shutdown threatens food assistance
The federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) issues benefits that can be used like cash to purchase food by approximately 42 million low-income residents. USDA has projected that SNAP will only have funding available for benefits and operations through the end of October. SNAP is funded through appropriations from Congress, and the shutdown halted all progress on a government funding package.
Health Care
New federal program won’t keep rural hospitals open
In exchange for a massive cut in Medicaid, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) created a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program. This was a compromise by Congress to help rural communities keep access to rural hospitals and clinics, as they will lose $155 billion over the next ten years of their traditional Medicaid funding. Additionally, the program funds can only be used to support reforms and innovations to strengthen rural health programs, not for operating expenses. Rural hospitals and clinics are critical care or “last resort” facilities that serve large numbers of uninsured and underinsured patients who cannot pay their bills. The National Grange and its partners raised these issues to Congress before the OBBBBA was passed and will now seek a legislative solution to correct the looming devastation to rural health care.
Support for obesity care
National Grange president Chris Hamp sent a letter to the House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees to urge passage of the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA) H.R. 4231. The Act would authorize Medicare to cover the full continuum of obesity care. Many adults with obesity have other associated chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. Rural residents are more likely to depend on federal programs like Medicare for their insurance coverage. Obesity rates in rural America are higher per capita (34.2%) than in urban settings (28.7%).
Update clinical laboratory Medicare payments
The National Grange joined the American Clinical Laboratory Association to express support to Congress for the bipartisan Reforming and Enhancing Sustainable Updates to Laboratory Testing Services (RESULTS) Act, S. 2761 and H.R. 5269. The Act would reform clinical laboratory payment under Medicare to ensure clinical laboratories continue to deliver routine testing services for seniors and advance the next generation of diagnostics.
Mobile clinics offer access to care
For those rural communities that currently have access to mobile health clinics, it’s no secret that these clinics on wheels fill a void. A new report from Georgetown University found that mobile health clinics can provide rural communities access to health care in areas where health care facilities and medical personnel are scarce. The study reported that these “doctors’ offices on wheels” can improve health for both individuals and their communities, while reducing health care costs. Mobile clinics obviously bring care closer to the communities and overcome lots of geographic and transportation-related barriers to care. An estimated 3,000 “doctors’ offices on wheels” currently operate across the country.
Immigration / AG Workforce
Immigration crackdown hurting ag
The Labor Department has acknowledged that the immigration crackdown is hurting farmers and ranchers as well as risking higher food prices. The Washington Post subsequently reported that unless the Department acts immediately to provide a source of stable and lawful labor, this threat will grow. The Labor Department also noted that Americans are not willing to step into farm work and lack the skills to fill agricultural jobs that undocumented immigrants are abandoning. The National Grange is acting with the Agriculture Workforce Coalition to urge Congress to take up comprehensive immigration reform and is offering suggestions to craft a stable and legal pathway for farm workers.
Telecommunications
Hybrid networks for rural broadband
The $42.5 billion Broadband Equity and Deployment (BEAD) program landscape has evolved into an approach that recognizes the realities of serving the country’s hardest-to-reach locations. The question is no longer whether technologies like fixed wireless access (FWA) and Low Earth Orbit satellites (LEO) play a role in broadband expansion, but how providers can consider these technologies while maintaining quality and long-term viability. The economics of serving the most remote locations -the primary target of BEAD funding -often resulted in enormous and, ultimately, unacceptable costs per connected location. National Grange policy is that broadband expansion should consider all efficient and cost-effective technologies to reach the last mile of country roads. Over the past two years, National Grange has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish such guidelines for BEAD.
Of Interest
A salute to the Problem Solvers Caucus
A bipartisan group of 32 House members has created the Problem Solvers Caucus to commit themselves to sharing their opinions and beliefs and acting together for the betterment of the nation. They contend that everyone has the right to freedom of speech and the right to exercise that freedom-even and especially when they disagree with what is being said. Caucus members say that in moments of disagreement and conflict, they should model robust debate and dialogue without contempt and dehumanizing language. The following is a quote by the Caucus:
We stand together to say:
In America, we cannot use violence against people with whom we politically disagree.
Not Charlie Kirk.
Not Minnesota Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark.
Not Minnesota Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.
Not Paul Pelosi.
Not Representative Steve Scalise.
Not Representative Gabby Giffords.
Not Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
Not President Donald Trump.
We are Americans before we are Democrats or Republicans.
Perspectives
“The true and solid peace of nations consists not of equality of arms but in mutual trust alone”. ~ Pope John XXIII
“Equality and separation cannot exist in the same place”. ~ Jason Mraz
“All men are created equal. It is only men themselves who place themselves above equality”. ~ David Allen Coe
“Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it”. ~ Frances Wright