In preparation for the 2018 farm bill, the House Agriculture Committee unveiled a website that will serve as a central location for its activities on the panoramic legislation. In an animated booklet on the site titled “Drafting the Next Farm Bill,” the committee says it will “strengthen the safety net” of crop subsidies and crop insurance, “create a ladder of opportunity” in the food stamp program “that rewards employment and avoids trapping people in poverty,” and encourage “voluntary, incentive-based conservation practices.”
Agriculture committee chairman Michael Conaway told Politico that a draft of the 2018 bill has been sent to the Congressional Budget Office for an initial cost estimate. The 2014 farm law now in force is running at around $90 billion a year. Cotton and dairy producers want upgrades in their supports. “There will be changes within the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs; of course we want cotton growers to be eligible for those programs,” said Conaway.
On food stamps, Conaway reiterated his goal of stricter eligibility rules for able-bodied adults without dependents, or ABAWDs. The bill also would deal with so-called benefit cliffs and address root causes of hunger, he said. “What we’re doing folds in nicely with everything I’ve heard [House Speaker] Paul Ryan talk about for the last 15 years on welfare reform,” the chairman told Politico.
The House and Senate Agriculture committees created separate websites for their work on the 2014 farm law.
To watch a video announcement of the House Agriculture Committee’s farm bill site, click here.
The new website is available here.
For access to congressional sites with information about the 2014 farm law, click here.