The leaders of the House Agriculture Committee said aloud, albeit softly, what they have hinted for weeks — they want more money for the 2018 farm bill than is being spent under current law. Chairman Michael Conaway phrased the request to the Budget Committee as a need for “budget flexibility” for the farm bill, while the committee’s senior Democrat, Collin Peterson, said “we may need a little more.”
“The bottom line is this: We do not know what resources we will need to write an effective, new farm bill,” Conaway said during a five-minute committee meeting to approve a letter to the Budget Commttee. The letter, approved by voice vote with no objections, is one of the first steps in the process of writing a budget resolution that spells out limits on spending. The limits for the upcoming fiscal year will be important because they set the starting point for the farm bill. When enacted, the 2014 law was estimated to cost $100 billion a year.
After pointing to the plunge in farm income since commodity prices collapsed in 2013, Conaway said he needs the leeway to write legislation “to effectively address the conditions in farm and ranch country and then (decide) what resources will be required to achieve them.” Farm-state lawmakers were obliged to find $23 billion in savings over 10 years when they wrote the 2014 law, which was enacted more than a year behind schedule.
At a minimum, said Conaway and Peterson, there should be no budget cuts for the 2018 farm bill. “In fact, we may need a little more, but we’ll see how that goes,” said Peterson.
“There are holes in the farm safety net that need mending in the next farm bill, a farm bill that we aim to develop and enact into law on time,” said Conaway. Cotton and dairy producers say the insurance-like supports created by the 2014 law are failures while grain and soybean growers complain on absurdly large county-to-county variations in payments under the Agriculture Rick Coverage subsidy.
All of those would be expensive to fix in a period when federal spending is under pressure. A year ago, university economists estimated it would cost $1 billion a year to create the cottonseed oil subsidy that growers wanted. Outlays for cotton and dairy supports are small under current law, so there is little money to finance a revamped and more generous program.
Three-fourths of farm bill spending goes to food stamps, the major U.S. antihunger program. Grocery prices have been lower than expected, so food stamps are the primary reason the 2014 bill is costing slightly less than forecasted.
“We will propose meaningful reforms to SNAP” in the new farm bill, Conaway said a week ago, using the abbreviation for the program’s formal name, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. However, Rep. Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat, says benefits should be increased from the “inadequate” $126 per person per month.
To read the budget letter, Conaway’s opening statement or the committee news release or to watch a video of the session, click here.