As the clock struck midnight, a gridlocked 112th Congress — unable to pass a new Farm Bill — punted into the new year. As part of the “fiscal cliff” package enacted late in the evening of New Year’s Day, the 2008 Farm Bill was extended with minor changes to Sept. 30, 2013.

This included USDA’s key export promotion programs — the Market Assessment Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development program (FMD) — which were reauthorized at current levels through the end of the fiscal year.

Prospects for a new Farm Bill in the 113th Congress are uncertain. The good news is that export promotion initiatives, including MAP and FMD, enjoy broad bipartisan support.

Given the federal government’s difficult fiscal situation, however, Congress remains deadlocked over the Farm Bill’s big ticket items, including USDA’s major nutrition, commodity, and crop insurance programs. MAP and FMD are among a broad range of relatively uncontroversial Farm Bill programs that are caught in the crossfire. But that does not lessen the impact of uncertainty on cooperators, including the U.S. Grains Council, that utilize these programs to build and defend global markets for U.S. agricultural products.

While the U.S. Grains Council does not lobby, it has worked closely with allied farm organizations to spread the good word about the success of U.S. agricultural exports and their important contribution to American jobs and economic growth. MAP and FMD are part of a proven public-private partnership that has helped make the United States the world’s top agricultural exporter. Both global markets and global competition are growing rapidly. The future is bright — provided that we are prepared to compete to win the battle for export share.