ILLINOIS AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION

IFB continues to lobby for the passage of a permanent 5-year farm bill. This is to include changes that accurately reflect the needs of Illinois Farmers. We also support continued crop insurance programs, disaster relief when needed, conservation programs to preserve farming soil. This also includes advocating for sufficient funding of state and local FSA offices and a successful NRCS and RMA programs.

IFB continues to call for the repeal of the estate tax.

Support trade agreements (United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement - USMCA). IFB advocated to keep the agreement and work through the 2026 review process. IFB supports keeping the exemptions on tariffs for agriculture products and commodities. Worked on getting new trade deals done and advocated for a trade deal between the United Kingdom and the United States. IFB worked on sharing the importance of trade deals for agriculture. Conversations around the administrations blanket tariffs resulted in many meetings with IFB sharing our dislike of them.

IFB advocated for the administration to not impose tariffs on U.S. trading partners. IFB advocated to honor trade agreements. IFB advocated to not impose reciprocal tariffs on counties, whether the U.S. had a trade agreement or not. IFB advocated to honor the partnership between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

IFB expressed the need for funding of a full 5-year farm bill and USDA funding. We supported the call for a full one-year funding bill for agricultural programs through September 30, 2026. This was needed to provide full funding of the extension of the 2018 Farm Bill.