Farm Bill

DTN Ag Policy Editor Chris Clayton reported last week that, “Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson of Pennsylvania got the call Wednesday afternoon from a Republican steering committee that he would officially chair the House Agriculture Committee in the next Congress.”

Kristina Peterson reported in today’s Wall Street Journal that, “House Republicans had a tough time passing the last farm bill, when they had a sizable majority in 2018. It’s about to get much harder.”

Late last month, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released an update titled, “Farm Bill Primer: Conservation Title.”

Jason DeParle reported on the front page of Monday’s New York Times that, “The Biden administration has revised the nutrition standards of the food stamp program and prompted the largest permanent increase to benefits in the program’s history, a move that will give poor people more power to fill their grocery carts but add billions of dollars to the cost of a program that feeds one in eight Americans.”

DTN Ag Policy Editor Chris Clayton reported this week that, “The House Agriculture Committee on Tuesday advanced a bill to provide as much as $8.5 billion in supplemental disaster aid for farmers and ranchers who faced disaster both in 2020 and 2021.”

On Wednesday, the House Ag Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management discussed the Farm Bill, crop insurance, and ad hoc disaster programs in a meeting titled, “A Hearing to Review the Efficacy of the Farm Safety Net.”

A report last month from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), “U.S. Farm Policy: Revenue Support Program Outlays, 2014-2020,” stated that, “Provisions of Title I of the 2018 farm bill (Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018;P.L. 115-334) authorize a set of revenue support programs for major program crops for crop years 2019-2023 as part of the so-called farm safety net.  This includes three principal revenue support programs— Marketing Assistance Loan (MAL), Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC), and Price Loss Coverage (PLC).”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) recently released a report (“The Food Assistance Landscape: FY 2018 Annual Report,” by Victor Oliveira) that examined “trends in U.S. food and nutrition assistance programs through fiscal 2018.”  The 15 domestic food and nutrition assistance programs administered by USDA account for over two-thirds of the Department’s annual budget.  Today’s update includes highlights from the ERS report.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) published an overview of the Conservation Title of the 2018 Farm Bill.  Today’s update looks at a couple key points from the ERS summary.

Following quick Senate action on Tuesday, and after surviving a close procedural vote on the Rules for debate, the House of Representatives passed the Farm Bill conference report on Wednesday by a vote of 369 to 47.  The measure now heads to President Trump for his signature.

A news release on Monday from the House Agriculture Committee stated that, “House and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairmen Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Ranking Members Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) today released the text of the bipartisan, bicameral 2018 Farm Bill conference report.”  On Tuesday evening, the Senate passed the measure by a vote of 87-13.

McClatchy writer Bryan Lowry reported Wednesday that, “Pat Roberts isn’t ready to celebrate a deal on the farm bill, but he’s getting closer.

Roberts, the Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, said that he and the other three principal negotiators on the legislation have reached a tentative agreement on the bill and are now waiting on analysis from the Congressional Budget Office for a final bill.”

Reuters writer Humeyra Pamuk reported last week that, “U.S. soybean farmer Mike Schlosser does not expect President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, the single biggest headwind to his business, to end any time soon. But he is among many in farm country who expect at least some good news this year – in the form of a new Farm Bill.”

House Ag Committee Chair-elect Collin Peterson (D., Minn.) was a guest on Thursday’s “Adams on Agriculture” radio show with Mike Adams. Today’s update includes perspective on the status of the Farm Bill legislation from Rep. Peterson, as well as other recent news items discussing the Conference Committee’s progress.

A report last week from the Congressional Research Service stated that, “The timing and consequences of expiration vary by program across the breadth of the farm bill. There are two principal expiration dates: September 30 and December 31. The 2014 farm bill generally expires either at the end of FY2018 (September 30, 2018), or with the 2018 crop year. Crop years vary by commodity, but the first to be affected by a new crop year is dairy, whose 2018 crop year ends on December 31, 2018.”

The current Farm Bill has expired and tensions among key members of the Conference Committee persist. Today’s update provides an overview of recent articles that highlight ongoing Farm Bill issues in greater detail.

House Ag Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D., Minn.) was a guest on Friday’s “Adams on Agriculture” radio show with Mike Adams.  Today’s update includes perspective on the status of the Farm Bill legislation from Rep. Peterson, as well as other recent news items discussing the Conference Committee’s progress.

DTN Ag Policy Editor Chris Clayton reported Wednesday that, “Conferees on the farm bill understand the economic challenges facing farmers and want to get a farm bill done to provide certainty — a popular word among them — to farmers and rural America. Leading lawmakers on the House and Senate Agriculture Committees met in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, committing to get a farm bill done by Sept. 30; however, many of the conferees had significant reservations about specific provisions or differences between the House and Senate bills.”