By: Malie Hale and Kenyerlin Ng
The M.A.G.A. Make Agriculture Great Again bill is a farmer relief policy that failed this afternoon. This Act intended to take one billion dollars from the Department of Education for funding. James Comers, member of the House of Representatives for Kentucky's first district, said “Woke is a joke” in reference to school education culture that he believes is turning children against the U.S.A.
This bill offers a solution for American farmers who are financially struggling to keep their businesses strong. On February 21st, during the first session held in the House Committee of Agriculture, co-sponsors, Monica De La Cruz representing Texas's 15th district, Kat Cammack representing Florida’s 3rd district, Join Rose representing Tennessee’s 6th district, Trent Kelly Mississippi’s 1st district, and Mike Bost representing Illinois’s 12th district, founded the M.A.G.A bill to ensure that farmers have a program to fund their land during a business decline to protect from bankruptcy. The bill will establish a new farmer relief committee that will consist of 35 bipartisan members and will combine with the bipartisan Rural Health Caucus. The farmers will need to submit individual applications and the committee members will deliberate on applications and determine the amount of aid assigned to each farmer, which cannot exceed $5,000. The amount will need to be reevaluated every month.
Farmers will only be able to apply for financial aid if their land has been declared under a state of emergency by the president or are present in a disaster area that was determined under FEMA. To continue with the application, American farmers must qualify under the financial regulations - businesses must earn less than $100,000 per year. In addition, the policy will provide online education resources for farmers on topics related to financial literacy and agriculture.
The sponsors of the bill planned to defund 1 billion dollars from the D.O.E. Controversy struck within the walls of Constitution A, where multiple amendments were motioned to re-establish the funding. Democratic House representatives quickly tried to balance the funding from multiple branches, where they successfully received $300 million from the USDA and 700 million dollars from the D.O.E. Unlike the others, James Comer, Kentucky-01, motioned for the bill to receive $10 billion from the D.O.E. Mr. Comer stated that “desperate times call for desperate measures” when defending the extreme amount of cash he believes should be transferred from D.O.E to M.A.G.A. In an interview, he confirmed his strong beliefs:
Kenyerlin - So you say woke culture is..?
James Comer - Terrible for our education system, it’s destroying it.
Kenyerlin - What aspects of the education system do you disagree with?
James Comer - Just a lot of things going on. Kids in urban schools and rural schools are getting bad ideas about American history. We need to promote patriotism, we need to make sure these kids know America is perfect and America is great. It has very little flaws, and the flaws that it has are all very solvable. I just want the kids to know that they're growing up in one of the greatest countries in the world, if not the greatest.
Although Mr. Comer was persistent on adding more funding, the House was quick to claim it as unfriendly. Ultimately, with a divided vote, the bill failed with a final count of 21 - 36. Many representatives felt that the bill was unfair towards the D.O.E. and lacked foundation. The M.A.G.A. bill unsuccessfully passed the House of Agriculture.