In a show of solidarity, 254 groups spanning the world of food and agriculture signed a letter of opposition to any cuts in USDA programs in the coming fiscal year. “We urge you to oppose any additional cuts … in the appropriations process as well as proposals to re-open any title of the farm bill during consideration of the 2017 budget resolution,” said the letter to the leaders of the Appropriations and Budget committees in the House and Senate. The 2014 farm law cut spending by $16 billion over 10 years, says the letter, and CBO “projects that mandatory farm bill spending will decline over the next five years.”
While preserving peace among farm, conservation, anti-hunger and rural development groups, the letter, if heeded by Congress, would end the administration’s proposal for 20 percent cut in crop insurance spending, chiefly by lowering the federal subsidy for purchase of policies with the so-called harvest price option. It also would complicate work by the cotton industry to make cottonseed eligible for the same subsidies given to grain and soybean growers. The cottonseed subsidy could cost $1 billion a year.
Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who chaired the Senate Agriculture Committee during drafting of the 2014 law, said “the farm bill coalition,” as the disparate groups are known, was “standing strong against potential cuts from Congress. It’s important that we keep the Farm Bill intact through the budget and appropriations process to provide the full five-year certainty promised in that bipartisan bill.”