2023 farm bill

The farm bill coalition — the rural and urban alliance credited with carrying farm bills to enactment — "is a one-sided talking point," said House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson on Tuesday in insisting on a $53 billion increase in farm subsidies and cuts in SNAP. Time is running out for passage of the new farm bill this year, and farm groups, silent for weeks, are now calling for prompt congressional action.

The SNAP payment error rate ticked upward to 11.68 percent in fiscal 2023, the second straight year of sharply higher post-pandemic error rates, said the Agriculture Department. Farm-state Republicans, who want to cut SNAP spending, said the new farm bill should eliminate any tolerance for overpayments by states, which administer SNAP.

The largest U.S. anti-hunger program, SNAP, will cost $59 billion less over the coming decade than thought in February because food prices are moderating, said the Congressional Budget Office. The updated CBO baseline also indicated that estimated savings in the House Republican farm bill were too high and not nearly enough to pay for the plan’s proposed increases in crop subsidy and crop insurance spending.

The new farm bill should spend tens of billions of dollars more on crop subsidies and crop insurance while paring SNAP outlays, said Arkansas Sen. John Boozman in releasing the Senate GOP's outline for farm bill discussions on Tuesday. "I hope that we can get a farm bill done" this year, he said.

Congress can enact a new farm bill this year, despite being months behind schedule, if lawmakers respect "the needs and interests of the broad farm and food coalition," said Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow on Tuesday. "I know we can build on bipartisan cooperation and finish a 2024 farm bill."

Crop supports would be set so high in the farm bill written by House Republicans that cotton, peanut, and rice growers, and probably wheat and sorghum farmers too, "would receive a payment every year," said an environmental group on Tuesday. Farm groups called for Agriculture Committee passage of the bill later this week despite questions about the financial underpinnings of the five-year legislation.

Row-crop farmers would be able to collect up to $155,000 a year in crop subsidies, a $30,000 increase from the current limit, under the farm bill written by House Republicans and scheduled for a committee vote on Thursday. And, for the first time, the subsidy ceiling, often a lightning rod for reformers, would be adjusted annually for inflation.

The farm bill drafted by House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn Thompson could boost crop subsidy spending by $23 billion — 56 percent — above current levels and favor growers in the South over farmers in the North, according to analysts at two Midwestern universities. To offset the cost, they said, reductions may be needed in conservation, crop insurance, or nutrition programs.

With the new farm bill months overdue, Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow proposed a farm bill on Wednesday that would boost so-called reference prices — a roadblock issue — while rejecting the $28 billion cut in SNAP sought by conservative Republicans. “That is a hard red line for me,” Stabenow told reporters.

House Republicans are following the "same ideological strategy that led to the failures of farm bills on the House floor in 2014 and 2018," said Georgia Rep. David Scott, the senior Democrat on the Agriculture Committee. Republicans plan to tamper with future SNAP benefits, a red line for Democrats, said Scott in an essay.

After repeated delays, House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson said on Tuesday that his committee, "without a doubt, will mark up a farm bill before Memorial Day." Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee plan to release a farm bill framework soon after the House panel acts, but Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat, cautioned, "We haven't set an exact timeline" to move the bill.