House Agriculture chairman Mike Conaway says that calls to reduce the cost of crop insurance are billed as reform, “but we know the real end game is to kill crop insurance.” The Texas Republican made the charge during videotaped remarks for an insurance industry convention. “The critics of farm policy and crop insurance are not going to go away,” said Conaway, who spoke critically of ideas such as requiring big farmers to pay a larger share of insurance premiums or reducing the amount the government pays each year toward the delivery of insurance.
Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts, who also videotaped remarks for the convention, said crop insurance “is the cornerstone of the farm safety net. You have my word to continue to protect, preserve, and improve the No. 1 risk-management tool in every farmer’s toolbox.”
The government pays 62 cents of each $1 in premium for crop insurance and shares in losses during bad years. It also pays part of the overhead cost of insurance. The 2014 farm law expanded the scope of the federally subsidized program so that it is the mainstay of the federal safety net. The program is projected to cost around $9 billion a year over the next decade. Roberts’ and Conaway’s remarks were reported by Agri-Pulse and by a trade group, National Crop Insurance Services.
The White House included $1.6 billion in cuts to crop insurance in its proposed budget for fiscal 2016. It would reduce the premium subsidy for revenue insurance that is triggered by commodity prices at harvest time, and reform the rules on payments for prevented planting. It says the changes will save money and keep the safety net strong.