One of the top lobbyists at the American Farm Bureau Federation says budget-cutting pressure means that, “This is probably the most challenging year for crop insurance in a long time,” AgWeb reports in a story from the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau meeting. AFBF’s Mary Kay Thatcher gave “the most challenging year” warning while discussing the increased prominence of the insurance program. She said it accounts for 45 percent of spending under the 2014 farm law if public nutrition programs are excluded. AgWeb quotes Thatcher as saying, “Farmers are going to be the ones looked at for cuts this year.”
Meanwhile, 31 farm, insurance and banking groups sent a letter to the House and Senate Budget committees asking them to forego cuts in crop insurance in the coming fiscal year. The groups said “attacking farmers’ most important risk management tool only weakens the farm safety net in the bipartisan farm bill.”
Farm groups give top priority to crop insurance when Congress wrote the 2014 farm law. They gave up the $5 billion-a-year “direct payment” subsidy in order to expand crop insurance and satisfy demands for farm subsidy cuts.
Text of the crop insurance letter is available here.