The election has passed and maybe surprisingly, not much has changed in Washington, D.C. 

We returned a strong Republican House, a Democrat Senate, and Barack Obama to the White House.

This group, leading up to the election, failed to collectively produce a farm bill on time. Now that the election season is over, there is hope that reasonable thoughts will prevail and a farm bill will be dealt with in the ‘lame duck’ session of Congress before the end of the year.

Some in Congress have expressed optimism this can happen, but that optimism has been met with equally strong pessimism.  This country needs to do better than that.  Farmers and ranchers need timely information in order to plan crop plantings, budgets and loan requirements.

The Senate, particularly two in the Senate, deserves praise for moving a farm bill forward. Sen. Pat Roberts, Republican from Kansas, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Democrat from Michigan, put partisan politics aside and were instrumental in moving a bill out of the upper chamber. However, when the bill was moved across the rotunda to the House, it never made it to the floor for debate.

Reports indicate that when members of the 112th Congress reassemble for the lame-duck session, one of the biggest budget-cutting targets in their crosshairs may be federal spending on the crop insurance program. That is not logical thinking.

With the cuts totaling more than $20 billion, agriculture has taken in the Senate version of the farm bill through loss of direct and other payments, crop insurance is now accepted as the leading focal point to provide a needed safety net for farmers and ranchers. Given the weather and other factors, farmers and ranchers must have some kind of risk management. Farming is so capital intensive that bankers and others involved in the operation need the backing of risk management tools. If we lose the federal crop insurance program, or it is cut to the point that it is prohibitively expensive, we could see a restructuring of American agriculture simply because there are too many farmers and ranchers that can’t stand that kind of risk.

As much of farm country has been devastated by a two-year drought and as the east coast has seen the massive losses from a monster hurricane, it should be clear to lawmakers that risk management tools are the preservation of life as we know it and the security of food on our table. Let’s hope this reality sinks in and some of those who remain in power do better for agriculture this time around.

Steve Baccus is the Kansas Farm Bureau president. He farms in Ottawa County.