Just as President Trump expressed his campaign through the slogan “Make America Great Again,” a bill filed by two members of the House Freedom Caucus can be summarized as “Make the farm bill Trump again.” South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman intends to offer the legislation, which would enact crop insurance and farm subsidy reforms espoused by Trump, as an amendment during House debate of the farm bill, which could occur as early as mid-May.
The package sponsored by Norman and Paul Gosar of Arizona would cut crop insurance spending by one-third from the expected $7.8 billion annually, primarily by requiring growers to pay a larger share of the premium for federally subsidized crop insurance. The Republican lawmakers invoked the president’s spirit by calling their bill, HR 5629, “President Trump’s Farm Bill Reforms Act of 2018.”
“If we are serious about tackling our nation’s spending problem, then we cannot be afraid to enact the common sense reforms to our farm safety net that were outlined in President Trump’s budget for fiscal year 2019,” said Norman in a statement. A handful of fiscal hawks and small-government groups supported the bill. “A great step toward creating a federal financial safety net for agriculture that taxpayers can afford,” said one of the groups, Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Farm-state lawmakers coolly dismissed Trump’s suggestions within hours of their proposal in mid-winter. The farm bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee would expand the list of family members eligible for crop subsidies and remove payment limits on some forms of corporate farming and make few changes to crop insurance. The lightning rod for criticism of the bill is Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway’s plan to require up to 9 million “work capable” adults to work at least 20 hours a week or spend an equivalent time in job training or workfare while tightening eligibility rules.
Crop insurance is the top priority in the farm bill for farm groups, who expect the program will be a major target for reformers during floor debate.
With Democrats strongly opposed to the bill, Conaway would need nearly unanimous support among House Republicans to pass the farm bill. Last week, Conaway said he had spoken to many of the three dozen members of the Freedom Caucus and “I’ve gotten kind of a head nod from those guys that they don’t see anything in there right now that causes them to vote against it.” A Conaway aide was not immediately available to say what Conaway thinks of the Norman-Gosar bill.
At the moment, Norman and Gosar are the only sponsors of HR 5629. “It is our hope that the list will grow next week when they (representatives) return to DC,” said a Norman spokeswoman. The bill was unveiled just before Congress recessed for two weeks.
Their bill would reduce the federal subsidy of crop insurance premiums, now roughy 62 cents of each $1, so that growers would pay about 47 cents of each $1 in premium. That would save an estimated $22.4 billion over 10 years. An additional $724 million would be saved by limiting subsidized crop insurance to people with less than $500,000 adjusted gross income (AGI) a year. Some $3 billion would be saved by lowering the profit margin guaranteed to the insurance companies that sell crop policies.
Total savings under the Norman-Gosar bill would rise to $28.6 billion by limiting commodity and conservation payments to people with less than $500,000 AGI, allowing only one “manager” per farm to claim crop subsidies, imposing the same payment limits on peanut farmers as other farmers face, and eliminating so-called commodity certificates, which can be used to evade USDA’s weak payment limits.
In his budget package, Trump proposed a $26 billion cut in crop insurance spending over 10 years, roughly the same proportional cut as the Norman-Gosar bill although there are differences in the details. Trump proposed smaller premium subsidies for farmers and a lower guaranteed rate of return for insurers, the dominant themes of the Norman-Gosar bill.
The Freedom Caucus says its members support limited government, the Constitution, the rule of law and policies that promote liberty, safety and prosperity. Some members are veterans of the Tea Party movement.