House Budget chairwoman Diane Black is trying to line up fractious Republicans to support budget cuts of a penny on the dollar for mandatory spending programs over the next 10 years. If Budget Committee members agree, that ratio would trim around $10 billion from programs that would be part of the new farm bill, a smaller amount than the $17 billion cut from crop supports, conservation and food stamps in the 2014 farm law.
Black hopes to win agreement among Republicans so that she can call a vote this week in committee to approve a budget outline for fiscal 2018 that would increase spending on the military and cut spending on entitlements, a broad category that includes crop subsidies and food stamps. Infighting between centrist and anti-spending Republicans has prevented an agreement on the budget resolution, nominally due by April 15 each year.
Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway and Black agreed nearly two weeks ago on a cut in mandatory USDA programs and neither has disclosed the figure. There were indications on Capitol Hill that $10 billion was a reasonable estimate of it.
Earlier this year, Agriculture Committee members pointed to the farm-sector slump that began in 2013 and said they should be spared from budget cuts, partly because outlays under the 2014 farm law were lower than expected. Most of the savings are in food stamps, due to low food inflation. Enrollment also is on the decline, with 41.6 million recipients at latest count, the lowest monthly figure since July 2010, according to the anti-hunger Food Research and Action Center.
“Conaway persistently made the case that slashing programs under his watch would imperil the 2018 farm bill and, by extension, farmers, rural constituents and low-income Americans struggling to make ends meet,” said Politico in describing the chairman’s negotiations with Black. Cuts of $70 billion were proposed initially, said Politico, but they were reduced to $10 billion as Black scaled back her target for cuts throughout the government.
“We want a 1-percent cut in mandatory spending,” Black said in a speech last week in Jackson, Tenn. “One penny on a dollar. And if we can’t find a way to cut one penny on a dollar, shame on us. And that is where the biggest fight is right now — between the one side and the other side.”
Fiscally conservative Republicans sought the largest cut in a generation, $40 billion, in food stamps in the 2014 farm bill. Democrats objected and the dispute ended with the first House defeat of a farm bill. It was weeks before the legislation was revived and in the end, food stamps were cut by $8 billion over 10 years.
Farm bills are panoramic legislation that set the terms for farm support, public nutrition, international food aid, agricultural research, soil and water conservation, rural economic development and forestry programs. The CBO projects that food stamps and mandatory agricultural programs, which include crop subsidies, crop insurance and some conservation programs, will cost $822 billion through 2027.