Senate Passes 2014 Farm Bill, Ending Three-year Struggle

Today the U.S. Senate passed the 2014 Farm Bill with a decisive vote of 68-32, sending it to the president’s desk.

“This bill includes proactive and common sense conservation programs that will help deter wetland and other habitat loss, incentivize habitat conservation and keep working farmers and ranchers on their land,” said DU CEO Dale Hall. “DU is thankful to Chairwoman Stabenow and Ranking Member Cochran for never losing sight of these end goals. This farm bill is the best for conservation that we’ve seen in many years, and that is due in large part to our conservation champion, Chairwoman Stabenow.”

The 2014 Farm Bill includes the conservation and sporting community’s top priorities of re-coupling conservation compliance to crop insurance and a Sodsaver program affecting the top duck producing states of Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Wetlands benefit humans and wildlife by ensuring clean drinking water, lessening the impact of floods, maintaining vital habitats for waterfowl and other wildlife and keeping working farms and ranches productive by remediating runoff. Due in part to the unintended consequences of current agriculture policy and advanced technology, the United States has lost more than 70 percent of the nation’s native grasslands and 50 percent of its wetlands. Conservation provisions included in the 2014 Farm Bill are designed to encourage the conservation of our nation’s remaining wetlands and grasslands, which help keep our waters clean, prevent soil erosion and provide vital habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife.

“We also thank Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell for their strong leadership in quickly getting the farm bill to the floor for passage. Farmers, ranchers and conservationists can rest assured that we now have stable agriculture policy for the next five years,” said Hall.

Ducks Unlimited

Ducks Unlimited is the world's leader in wetlands and waterfowl conservation. DU got its start in 1937 during the Dust Bowl when North America’s drought-plagued waterfowl populations had plunged to unprecedented lows. Determined not to sit idly by as the continent’s waterfowl dwindled beyond recovery, a small group of sportsmen joined together to form an organization that became known as Ducks Unlimited. Its mission: habitat conservation. Thanks to decades of abiding by that single mission, Ducks Unlimited is now the world’s largest and most effective private waterfowl and wetlands conservation organization. DU is able to multilaterally deliver its work through a series of partnerships with private individuals, landowners, agencies, scientific communities and other entities.