{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://dustyjohnson.house.gov/media/press-releases/johnson-budzinski-legislation-provides-overdue-base-acre-update", "Johnson, Budzinski Legislation Provides Overdue Base Acre Update", "2025-09-25", "2025", "2025-09", "Republican", "House", "SD", "Dusty Johnson", "J000301", "dustyjohnson.house.gov", "dustyjohnson", "https://dustyjohnson.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Representatives Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) and Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) introduced the Balanced Agricultural Support and Efficiency (BASE) Act to require the United States Department of Agriculture to update base acres for all farms as soon as is practicable. The last mandatory update was completed in 1985; the last voluntary update was completed in 2014.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s been four decades since the last mandatory update and production agriculture has changed drastically since then,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cChanging global markets, high inflation, and black swan events over the past five years have changed farmers\u2019 inputs and outputs. Updating base acres will help support our farmers.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe current base acre allocations do not accurately reflect what\u2019s really being planted across the United States. For the folks I represent in Illinois, it\u2019s simply not fair,\u201d said Budzinski. \u201cThis legislation will finally bring fairness back to base acreage for the first time in 40 years, see that farmers are accurately supported for what they grow today, and ensure that we serve as better stewards of taxpayer dollars.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe need a modernized safety net that benefits active farmers. Farmers in South Dakota face high input costs, low prices and widening basis,\u201d said Taylor Sumption, President, South Dakota Corn Growers Association. \u201cThe South Dakota Corn Growers Association greatly appreciates Representative Johnson working to level the playing field on behalf of our corn producers.\u201d\n\nThe Balanced Agricultural Support and Efficiency (BASE) Act:\n\nRequires the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to update base acres for all farms as soon as practicable after enactment.\n\nUpdates are based on a five-year average of acres planted (or prevented from planting due to disasters), using 2020-2024 planting history. No crop year from 2020-2024 may be excluded, even if nothing was planted.\n\nIf acreage was devoted to more than one covered commodity (other than double-cropping), producers may elect which crop to count \u2013 but not both.\n\nThe update accounts for disasters like prevented planting acres caused by drought, flood, or other uncontrollable events are included.\n\nRemoves \u201cgeneric base acres.\u201d Outdated provisions are eliminated, with conforming changes to yield, payment, and coverage calculations.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://dustyjohnson.house.gov/media/press-releases/johnson-budzinski-legislation-provides-overdue-base-acre-update"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0255759116262197, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}