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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Ongoing partisan battles over nutrition assistance and Inflation Reduction Act funding have received all the attention but there are plenty of other policy disagreements in the approaches that leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees are taking on a new farm bill.
There are a lot of new details now about the farm bill that Republicans plan to push through the House Agriculture Committee next week. Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., on Friday afternoon released a 38-page section-by-section summary on his draft and is expected to release more detail later this week.
There’s a big push this year to bolster the farm safety net by raising premium subsidies for high levels of area insurance coverage, and the idea has gotten traction in both the House and Senate.
House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., confirmed to Agri-Pulse Wednesday there will be different increases in statutory reference prices depending on the commodity.
Farmers and ranchers would like to see increased crop insurance subsidies and commodity price supports in the new farm bill, and a strong majority support cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to an exclusive Agri-Pulse producer poll.
Democrats on the House and Senate Agriculture committees see the farm safety net as broader thanthan the major commodity programs and want to make sure that the next farm bill addresses needs of smaller-scale producers, committee aides say.
The House Agriculture Committee is considering raising reference prices based on a commodity’s relative input costs, an approach that could benefit some southern crops over commodities such as soybeans and corn.
Commodity groups face some critical farm bill decisions in coming weeks that hinge on factors out of their control, including an updated forecast of farm program costs and uncertainty about the ongoing debt ceiling standoff between the White House and House Republicans.
Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member John Boozman says he will only vote in favor of a farm bill that fixes reference prices used in the Price Loss Coverage program.