By RACHEL LANE

D.C. Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Less than a year after his appointment as secretary of the USDA, Sonny Perdue was back before the House Agriculture Committee to discuss rural prosperity and the farm bill.

He was the only speaker at a hearing last week where he stressed the importance of the farm bill as a safety net for farmers and rural America, the need for immigration labor reform and the need for trade to support American agriculture.

“We’re in a very different place than we were the last time you contemplated a farm bill. I wish there was better news,” he said.

The 2014 farm bill was discussed for several years, during which time farmers across the country had high yields and commodity prices. In 2014, both decreased. In some areas, with some crops, the prices have continued to fall and are not expected to increase for the next few years.

As a result, the 2014 farm bill safety net did not provide adequate coverage for farmers.

With the exception of a few areas of agriculture, like cotton and dairy, that farm bill has provided a good base for the discussions for the 2018 bill, Perdue said. Over the last two years, members of the House and Senate agriculture committees have sought experts. In 2017, House committee members visited four regions of the United States to talk directly to producers about the current farm bill.

Perdue said trade and labor reform are always in the top three items farmers want addressed. China’s recent statements about investigating the U.S. sorghum industry show the reliance of some crops on trade. Just days after the statement, prices for sorghum dropped by $1 per bushel.

“The trade environment has created a lot of anxiety in the last year,” he said. “American producers are so productive, we’ve got to have good trade policies. We cannot be responsible for China’s reaction.”

The North American Free Trade Agreement is still being discussed, and President Trump is convinced the U.S. can do better in a revised version. Perdue said he thinks Mexico and Canada representatives are coming to the same conclusion. He thinks an agreement will be reached after the Mexican presidential elections this summer.

In some regions, the need for migrant workers is being addressed and Perdue hopes to see the discussion reflected at the national level.

Much of the farm bill is in SNAP funding, a food nutrition program. When asked about the waiver programs that many states have in place to excuse able-bodied adults from work requirement, Perdue said the current farm bill doesn’t seem to authorize the USDA to deny the waivers. He would support more administrative authority to manage the programs.

“It does not take a hearing to appreciate the hardships that rural America and our nation’s farmers and ranchers face today. Over the last four years, we have witnessed the steepest decline in net farm income since the Great Depression,” said Ag Committee Chair Michael Conaway (R-Texas).

The USDA has worked to remove unnecessary regulations to assist farmers, and tax cuts were aimed at helping reduce the cost of business in rural America and creating more economic activity and jobs on the farm, he said.

In the last year, farmers have also faced natural disasters, rising foreign subsidies, tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers that have created chronically depressed prices. An uncertain trade environment has increased anxiety in rural America because farmers depend on global markets, Conaway added.

Crop insurance has been a success story, providing risk management to farmers, but more can be done, he said.