(NewsDakota.com/NAFB.com) – The House Agriculture Committee’s Ag Appropriations Subcommittee passed its fiscal year 2024 agriculture funding bill.

The National Farmers Union says the legislation includes harmful provisions that would prevent USDA from completing a long-awaited Packers and Stockyards Act rule to protect family farmers and ranchers from abuses of market power by the meat industry. “Our markets are heavily consolidated and ripe for manipulation,” says NFU President Rob Larew.

Chris Gibbs, president of Rural Voices USA, a leading rural advocacy group, says it’s hard to watch lawmakers who largely represent rural communities gut funding that goes directly to those same rural communities. “By slashing USDA funding by one-third, the House GOP is showing how backward their priorities are,” Gibbs says. “Instead of allowing rural communities to play a meaningful role in industries of the future, this proposal will leave rural communities behind.” Both groups say rural communities cannot stay silent on proposals like this.