Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, the only lawmaker to chair the Senate and House Agriculture committees, will retire in 2020 after four decades in Congress. Roberts was the author of the landmark Freedom to Farm law of 1996 that removed most federal controls over what crops farmers grow. Enacted during a period of strong global demand for food and soaring commodity prices, Freedom to Farm liberated growers from the constricting web of crop supports and planting limits in force since the Depression era that produced seemingly endless crop surpluses.
“I will continue as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee,” said Roberts, 82, during a news conference in Manhattan, Kansas, on Friday. “We have urgent work to do on our nation’s trade policy; it is a top priority. We will oversee how USDA implements the new farm bill to make sure it is working for our farmers and ranchers.” He said he also would work on tax and healthcare reform as a member of the Finance Committee during his final two years in office. The Republican is in his fourth Senate term and served eight terms in the House before that.
Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, although Roberts was challenged strongly in the 2014 GOP primary and general elections. The analytical site Sabato’s Crystal Ball rates the 2020 Senate rate as “safe Republican.” Possible candidates for the GOP nomination include outgoing Gov. Jeff Colyer, Rep. Roger Marshall, state Attorney General Derek Schmidt, former Rep. Kevin Yoder and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, reported McClatchy.
Roberts had a hand in eight farm bills — an informal method among Washington’s food and ag community of counting longevity — and was arguably the foremost advocate in Congress of federally subsidized crop insurance. The 2018 farm law maintains strong federal support for the program, the top priority among farm groups, but Roberts was criticized by diehard conservatives for leaving SNAP benefits unchanged. House Republicans voted for stricter SNAP work requirements. Roberts, working hand in hand with the senior Democrat on his committee, Debbie Stabenow, wrote a bipartisan bill intended to pass, as it did, with broad support in a chamber where Republicans held a two-vote advantage.
“Day in and day out, he defines what it means to be a consensus builder,” said Stabenow.
Freedom to Farm called for a phase-down of subsidy payments to farmers, with the goal of eventual elimination of them. A global economic slowdown in the late 1990s hurt U.S. farm exports and prompted Congress to authorize a series of bailout payments. The 2002 farm law reinstituted crop subsidies to offset low prices, but so-called planting flexibility, the salient feature of Freedom to Farm, remains a standard feature of U.S. farm policy.