Washington, March 22 – Members of the House Agriculture Committee met this morning to discuss how House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget proposal would impact their options for writing the 2012 Farm Bill.
House Speaker John Boehner expressed confidence that the full House would approve the plan next week, which includes $5.3 trillion in government-wide spending cuts and entitlement reforms, and $2 trillion in tax reductions to shrink the deficit $3.3 trillion below President Obama’s latest plan.
If the budget resolution is approved by the full House, members of the House Agriculture Committee are expected to have discretion to make cuts within the total $994.6 billion in budget authority available for mandatory farm bill funding in the March 2012 Congressional Budget Office baseline. However, the Ryan plan proposes about $181 billion in cuts in three primary areas: Commodity programs, conservation, and nutrition.
Here are the proposed cuts in the Ryan budget plan:
Commodity Related Programs (Budget Reduction in Millions of Dollars)
Reduce Direct Payments by 33% 12,057
Cap crop insurance premium subsidies 15,500
Commodity Export Programs 3,533
Subtotal 31,090
Conservation
Prohibit new CSP enrollment 10,500
Reduce new CRP enrollment by 50% 5,500
Subtotal 16,000
SNAP
State Block Granting 122,500
Eliminate Categorical Eligibility 11,500
Grand Total 181,090
The Ryan Budget proposes capping crop insurance premium subsidies at levels currently available for 75% crop insurance coverage, which carry a 55% premium subsidy, potentially making crop insurance more expensive for producers purchasing lower levels of coverage.
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