Wednesday, August 6th, 2025
Moreno touts farm benefits in Big Beautiful Bill
Speaks to local farmers at roundtable
By William Kincaid
Photo by William Kincaid/The Daily Standard
U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, right, talks about the agricultural benefits contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act during a roundtable presentation at MVP Dairy on Tuesday afternoon.
CELINA - U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, visited MVP Dairy on Tuesday afternoon to highlight farm program benefits included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4.
Dozens of ag producers were invited to the roundtable presentation, in which Moreno largely focused on the roughly $65.6 billion in increased agriculture-related spending over the next decade, a facet of the 2025 federal budget reconciliation bill that he believes has been underreported in the media.
The budget bill, commonly referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Moreno asserted, delivers long-overdue policy certainty by strengthening core safety net programs, enhancing risk management tools and locking in important tax provisions for family farms.
The American Relief Act, 2025, signed into law on Dec. 21, 2024, extended the 2018 Farm Bill for one year through Sept. 30 according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Photo by William Kincaid/The Daily Standard
An American Farm Bureau Federation chart breaks down the roughly $65.6 billion in increased farm program spending.
"We haven't been able to pass a Farm Bill in a while, as you know. Farm Bill requires 60 votes," Moreno said, noting the 53 Republican senators need cooperation from their Democratic colleagues.
However, the financial assistance to farm programs worked into the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is significant, Moreno pointed out.
"We put as much Farm Bill priorities as we could in this bill," he said. "I wouldn't call it a Farm Bill … but I'll say it is as close to getting a Farm Bill into a bill that's not supposed to be a Farm Bill."
Moreno then referenced a chart put together by American Farm Bureau Federation that breaks down the roughly $65.6 billion in increased farm program spending. The bulk of the money - $59 billion - is dedicated to the safety net, which includes the commodity support programs of Agriculture Risk Coverage, Price Loss Coverage and Dairy Margin Coverage, as well as crop insurance.
"This is a stop-gap measure until we're able to pass a Farm Bill. Hopefully, by the way, we get that done this year," he said.
Moreno then pointed to a slide showing how the new law increased reference prices, or price guarantees, for major covered commodities - including corn, oats, sorghum, wheat and soybeans - by 11%-21%.
"You can see that we've increased that across the board. It hadn't been increased in a long time," Moreno said. "And then we indexed (it) to permanent inflation, so that we're not in a situation where nobody changes it in 30 years and you're getting hammered because the prices don't reflect reality."
Photo by William Kincaid/The Daily Standard
Dozens of ag producers turned out to MVP Dairy to hear Moreno speak. Some in the audience shared concerns about regulations impeding operations, drones and immigration.
Starting in crop year 2031, reference prices will grow by 0.5% annually on a compounded basis, with growth capped at 113% of the original value, reflecting long-term market trends while avoiding unchecked expansion, noted Market Intel, an online publication produced by the Farm Bureau economic analysis team.
Moreno also touched on estate tax relief for family farms.
"If you have … a generational transfer that happens, these farms that have been in your family for 100, 150 years, all of a sudden you have this giant tax bill that's due," Moreno said.
One Big Beautiful Bill, according to Market Intel, makes the estate tax exemption permanent at $15 million per individual or $30 million per couple, indexed for inflation. Were it not for the change, the exemption would have dropped to $5.5 million after 2025.
"That's a big deal," Moreno said.
He then pointed to another upside of the One Big Beautiful Bill: The establishment of Trump Accounts for children born in 2025-2028.
The investment accounts are to be seeded with $1,000 from the government, and children will be able to use the money when they become adults to start a new business, put the money toward a house or go to school.
Unlike other baby bond programs, which generally target disadvantaged groups, the federal program will be available to families of all incomes.
The program's backers have pitched the accounts as a way to give young people a boost as they reach adulthood and teach them about the benefits of investing. Critics argue families in poverty have more immediate needs and their children should receive a larger endowment if the goal is to help level the playing field.
"Family, friends, community, nonprofits, your employer can match that money up to $5,000 a year," Moreno said.
Moreno also drew attention to the child tax credit, which has increased to $2,200 per child, up from $2,000.
Photo by William Kincaid/The Daily Standard
ODA Director Brian Baldridge listens during a roundtable presentation at MVP Dairy.
Asked by the newspaper after the roundtable talk, Moreno addressed how the One Big Beautiful Bill will help middle class Americans.
"Child tax credit of $2,200. It kept the standard deduction that would have been cut in half if the Democrats had their way," Moreno said. "No tax on tips, overtime, and then the Social Security relief. The … ability to deduct auto interest loans is a big deal. So we add it all up for an average family in Ohio with two kids that makes about $90,000 a year, it's $7,500 in their pocket."
Democrats, Moreno claimed, "were putting $7,500 in the pockets of millionaires that wanted to lease electric vehicles, which is outrageous."
"So we got rid of that and put that money instead into the hands of working Americans," he said.
Photo by William Kincaid/The Daily Standard
Local officials and farmers gathered Tuesday to hear from U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio.
Asked if the new law will help lower prices on goods, such as ground beef that rose to an average of $6.12 per pound in June, up nearly 12% from 2024, Moreno replied that "the most important metric isn't prices by themselves."
"It's real wages versus inflation. So real wages are up almost 4%, inflation's in the 2's. That's the key thing," he said. "When Biden was in office real wages were flat - zero - and inflation was 9%. That's what was devastating. Look, you're going to have some price inflation, otherwise you have deflation, right? So you're going to have pricing that it just simply goes up 1 or 2% a year. It's real wages that we want going up much more, and that's what we're working on."
Earlier in the afternoon, Mercer County Commissioner Dave Buschur, a Republican, introduced Moreno to the audience, saying he got to meet him when he was campaigning for U.S. Senate at the county fair and other events.
"He proved to me then that he was willing to put the work in, and although (he didn't) grow up on a farm and hasn't experienced a lot that we have … he has proven that he's willing to dive into agriculture and he knows that Ohio's No. 1 business is agri-business. He understands that farming's not just a job … it's your life," Buschur said.
- The Associated Press contributed to this article.
