The chair of the House Agriculture Committee says he’s ready to start work on a stand-alone farm bill as soon as the House is done with the budget reconciliation measure that’s being used to boost spending on key farm programs.
“I warned the staff that they could take a day off after we passed the [reconciliation] bill out of committee. But then we're going to start to put together Farm Bill 2, because that's important as well,” Glenn "GT" Thompson, R-Pa., said Tuesday.
There is plenty of unfinished business for Farm Bill 2 that would have appeal to lawmakers from both parties.
Thompson said the provisions that would be in a stand-alone farm bill would address hemp production, protect pesticide manufacturers from lawsuits if products meet federal labeling requirements, and prevent states from setting animal production standards that other states must follow, such as with California’s Proposition 12 requirements for pork producers.
“There'll be a few folks with different opinions” on those issues, Thompson said.
Other issues also loom. The House reconciliation bill uses cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to increase the type of farm bill spending that is the highest priority for many farm groups.
The bill would increase Price Loss Coverage reference prices, boost premium subsidies for the supplemental coverage option on crop insurance, increase foreign market promotion funding and roll Inflation Reduction Act conservation funding into the farm bill baseline. It also would allow farmers to enroll new base acres in commodity programs and would increase payment limits.
But many farm bill provisions are being left behind because they don’t meet Senate restrictions on what can be included in a reconciliation bill, which needs only a simple majority to pass.
Farm bill provisions that have been left out of reconciliation include the following, according to an analysis by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition:
- Farm loan limits and rules.
- Programs targeted to small farms such as the Local Agriculture Market Program and Value-Added Producer Grants.
- Some research programs, including the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative, Organic Transitions Program and Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.
- Nutrition assistance incentives, including the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program and the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program.
- The Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program, Rural Business Development Grants, Business and Industry Loan Programs, and the Rural Energy for America Program.
“The programs that are left out of this bill, whether they drive the ship or not, have just as much popular support amongst members on both sides of the aisle, and I think the future vitality of those programs should be and is in bipartisan interest to continue,” said Mike Lavender, NSAC policy director.
Mike Lavender (LinkedIn photo)But the reconciliation bill would remove what has historically been a major motivation for Congress to write new farm bills – the threat that laws dating to 1938 and 1949 would kick in and force USDA to dramatically raise the price of milk, wheat and other commodities. The bill would extend existing commodity programs through 2031, delaying triggering of the 1938 and 1949 provisions, which are collectively known as "permanent law," until 2032.
Lavender said the permanent law provision might be among those that ultimately run afoul of the Byrd rule in the Senate. That rule prohibits reconciliation bills from containing nonbudgetary provisions.
The top Democrats on House and Senate Agriculture committees, Rep. Angie Craig and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, both of Minnesota, warn that cutting SNAP to pay for farm programs in reconciliation would jeopardize passage of a stand-alone farm bill.
But Thompson insisted there are still plenty of popular items that would be included in Farm Bill 2, and he said it won’t be hard to find funding for them.
“What's left comes at a much smaller price tag. That's important. We can find pay-fors. We'll have pay-fors that are not offensive to anybody, that's important. And we've got things that are really important to American agriculture to do. So, I don't think there's a disincentive; I think there's a real incentive to get that second part done,” Thompson said.
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Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman, R-Ark., told Agri-Pulse Tuesday his staff is talking to the Senate parliamentarian about what provisions could be included under the Byrd rule. He did not provide specifics and said the committee is still trying to work out what farm bill provisions the Senate plans to advance.
Boozman also is gauging Senate GOP support for the cuts to SNAP in the House reconciliation bill. That bill would reduce projected SNAP spending by an estimated $290 billion over 10 years, $60 billion of which would be used to pay for the increased spending on farm programs.
“We’re looking at the pay-fors and seeing how comfortable our committee members are with those and how they would affect the states,” Boozman said.
The SNAP spending cuts include a requirement that states start paying a share of the program’s cost. “We’re looking at everything. But again, I think there’s some concern,” Boozman said when asked about the state cost-share requirement.
Boozman acknowledged concern that extending some farm bill provisions until 2031 would make it harder to pass a separate farm bill. “We’ll have to look at the total package and see,” he said.
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