Highlighting the critical role the nation’s 1,912 farm banks play in financing the operations of America’s farmers and ranchers, ABA called for changes in the upcoming Farm Bill to the USDA Guaranteed Farm Loan Program in a written statement for the record of a House Agriculture Committee hearing yesterday.

Farmer Mac today reported $445 million in net new business for the first quarter, generating a record outstanding business volume of $17.8 billion.

The House today passed a $1 trillion compromise spending bill that funds the government through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The bill is expected to be passed by the Senate and signed by President Trump.

Farm banks increased their agricultural lending by 5.3 percent in 2016 and held $103.4 billion in ag loans at year’s end, according to the American Bankers Association’s annual Farm Bank Performance Report released today.

Concerns about commodity prices, liquidity and farm income are top-of-mind for the nation’s agricultural lenders, according to a new survey by ABA and Farmer Mac.

On March 29, the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing on the FCS.

Testifying on behalf of ABA today at a hearing before the House Agriculture Committee’s Commodity Exchanges, Energy and Credit Subcommittee, banker Nate Franzen outlined several changes ABA is seeking in the upcoming Farm Bill.

In a letter to President Trump today, the American Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America urged the president to make the revitalization of rural America a priority for any new national infrastructure program.

On February 28, the Agricultural Appropriation Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee held an oversight hearing on the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), the first such hearing the subcommittee had held in 19 years.