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A bipartisan Senate duo want to ensure that a suicide prevention and mental health resource for farmers stays funded.
Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, have joined forces to introduce legislation that would see millions in new funding for the Farm and Ranch Assistance Network, a program the pair first collaborated on in the 2018 Farm Bill.
The program is designed to help create a network for farmers, ranchers and other agriculture workers to have access to stress assistance and mental health programs. There are four regional hubs in Washington, New York, Illinois and Tennessee that act as conduits to aid farmers through the grant-funded program.
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“Too often, the stress, isolation, and physical demands of this job leave them with nowhere to turn when it all gets to be too much,” Baldwin said of the stress and mental health struggles faced by farmers and agriculture workers.
Indeed, Farmers are about three and half times more likely to die by suicide than the average U.S. population, according to a study from the National Rural Health Association.
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Their bill, called the Farmers First Act of 2025, would boost funding for the program by $75 million over the next five years, of which $15 million will be made available each fiscal year starting in 2026 through 2030.
The money would go toward hiring more behavioral health specialists, establish crisis lines, and build referral relationships with health care providers, health centers and critical access hospitals.
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“Iowa farmers work tirelessly from sunrise to sundown – rain or shine – to feed and fuel the world,” Ernst said. “Their work isn’t easy, and mental health issues, including suicide, are too common in our agriculture community, which is why I’m working to ensure farmers have better access to mental health resources.”
The program got a reup in funding in 2020, when a three-year tranche of over $28 million was made available to the regional hubs. That funding was again boosted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Congress injected an additional $28 million to allow states to maintain their own stress assistance programs. The latter funding was made available through grants of up to $500,000 to the state programs.
The bill is a bicameral effort, too. Reps. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, and Angie Craig, D-Minn., are pushing the bill in the House to bolster the program’s funding.
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Feenstra argued that refilling the program’s cash coffers would provide “farmers with real support in times of crisis.”
“Agriculture is the economic engine of Iowa, and our farmers and producers work long hours and make unseen sacrifices to feed and fuel our country and the world,” he said. “Those sacrifices can take a toll on our farm producers, especially when commodity prices tumble or severe weather destroys crops.”
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