Roughly 16 months ago, at their first hearing for the 2018 farm bill, Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts and Sen. Debbie Stabenow agreed to write a bipartisan bill that would be enacted on time, a seemingly simple goal that has eluded Congress repeatedly. With a committee vote set for Wednesday on their 1,006-page bill, the two committee leaders say they are on the verge of a major bipartisan victory.
“We made a commitment to make tough choices and produce a good, bipartisan farm bill,” said Roberts in a joint statement with Stabenow. The no-drama bill tweaks crop subsidy programs, allows a 1-million-acre increase in the land-idling Conservation Reserve, and continues SNAP in its current form, with some changes to improve administrative efficiency. Where House Republicans decided to write welfare reform into their farm bill with expanded and tougher work requirements for food stamps, Roberts and Stabenow carried through on promises to forego radical changes to SNAP.
Aides said the committee leaders focused from the start on legislation that would set good policy and be broadly supported. Roberts and Stabenow were very aware of Senate dynamics and that they need 60 votes “to get a bill across the Senate floor,” said a staff member who spoke on condition of anonymity. Republicans have a 51-49 majority in the Senate but a 60-vote majority is needed to prevent a filibuster.
SNAP dominated attention in the House, although fiscal hawks and reformers criticized the House bill for relaxing farm payment limits. The House rejected the farm bill on May 18, but GOP leaders are expected to try to revive it by June 22.
The two largest U.S. farm groups, in calling for quick action on the Senate bill, pointed to the downturn in commodity prices, the drought in the central and southern Plains, and the trade turmoil that threatens $20 billion in annual farm exports. The American Farm Bureau Federation said, “policy certainty and vital risk protection tools” are needed more than ever. The National Farmers Union said, “significant improvements” are needed in the farm safety net. The Roberts-Stabenow bill extends the crop-subsidy programs now in place for the 2019-23 crop years, with no change in support prices. Grain, cotton and soybean growers will have a one-time choice to enroll in the insurance-like Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) subsidy or the traditionally designed Price Loss Coverage (PLC) subsidy. Analysts expect many producers would switch to PLC because it sets a price floor.
Forty percent of producers polled by Purdue said the 2014 farm law was “not effective” in providing a financial safety net. The farm law scored similar poor marks in 2016 and 2017. In the latest polling, conducted for Purdue’s monthly Ag Economy Barometer, 25 percent of respondents rated the 2014 law as effective and 36 percent graded it as neutral.
Two-thirds of respondents who purchased crop insurance this year said the federally subsidized program is effective — a far better score than the traditional farm program. Some 17 percent said it was not effective and another 17 percent rated it neutral. When asked what they would do if they had to pay 50 percent more for coverage, 26 percent said they would not buy crop insurance and 54 percent said they would change coverage levels or switch to a different policy. Twenty percent said they would not change coverage. At present, the government pays 62 cents of each $1 in premium.
Anti-hunger groups applauded the Roberts-Stabenow bill for keeping SNAP in its current form, although with some revisions. “Throughout SNAP’s history, policymakers have made most reforms and program improvements on a bipartisan basis,” said Rob Greenstein, head of the think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “This proposal stands squarely within that tradition.” The Food Research and Action Center said the bill was “a clear acknowledgement of the harm hunger and poverty cause to children, seniors, people with disabilities and struggling workers.”
The Roberts-Stabenow bill ignores Trump administration proposals to shut down the Food for Peace program and would countermand Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s redesign of USDA by recreating the post of undersecretary for rural development. Perdue eliminated that post when he established the office of undersecretary for trade. The Senate bill supports some other Perdue ideas for redrawing USDA’s organizational chart.
The bill also would legalize hemp an allow states to regulate it as an industrial crop, used in products from clothing to health foods and body care.
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand reportedly pressed over the weekend for additional aid for dairy farmers above the $100 million provided in the bill. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley is a longtime proponent of stricter farm-subsidy rules, but the Roberts-Stabenow bill did not include his proposal for a $125,000 “hard” cap on annual subsidies per person and restricting payments to farmers, their spouses and one manager per farm. However, the bill would lower ceiling for eligibility for payments from $900,000 in annual adjusted gross income to $700,00.
Roberts and Stabenow used the word “bipartisan” three times in seven sentences in their joint statement. For the text of the farm bill or a section-by-section summary, click here.