Producers in Southeast to get $234 million for hurricane wind losses
Agricultural producers in more than 200 counties in six Southeastern states will receive nearly $234 million for wind losses sustained during Hurricane Helene, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Tuesday. Crop insurance companies were expected to pay the indemnities within 30 days.
Agriculture losses from Helene are significant, says Vilsack
The USDA will work with farmers and rural communities to help them recover from “significant” losses caused by Hurricane Helene, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday. As an example, he said, “We’re working with crop insurance companies now to expedite payments so farmers will receive help in November, if not sooner.”
Project 2025 plan for USDA: Repeal crop subsidies, move SNAP to HHS
In a second term as president, Donald Trump would seek repeal of crop subsidy and export promotion programs, make farmers pay more for crop insurance, and move all of USDA's public nutrition programs, including SNAP and school lunch, to the Department of Health and Human Services if he follows the advice of Project 2025, written by conservatives.
SNAP costs fall by 5 percent in new CBO estimate
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.
Boosted by forage policies, crop insurance coverage tops 500 million acres
Farmers and ranchers bought crop insurance policies on more than 500 million acres of land last year, the largest amount ever, driven by the surging popularity of forage policies. Overall enrollment in crop insurance was up 85 percent in the seven years from 2016, according to USDA data.
House farm bill is built on ‘voodoo economics,’ says analyst
The House Agriculture Committee is relying on made-up math to pay for a huge increase in crop subsidy and crop insurance spending, said analysts during a think tank discussion on Wednesday. “It makes voodoo economics look great,” said moderator Josh Sewell of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group.
GOP powers House committee passage of farm bill with $53 billion in new ag spending
The Republican-controlled House Agriculture Committee, with four Democratic crossovers, approved a farm bill early Friday that increases crop subsidy and crop insurance spending by one-third, cuts SNAP by $30 billion, and repudiates a Biden administration initiative on climate mitigation. Democrats said the bill has no chance of becoming law and might not survive a vote on the House floor because it lacks bipartisan support. (No paywall)
GOP uses ‘counterfeit money’ to pay for farm bill, says Vilsack
House Republicans are building unrealistic expectations in farm country by relying on “counterfeit money” to pay for a $50 billion expansion of crop subsidies and crop insurance in the new farm bill, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday. The House Agriculture Committee was expected to approve Chairman Glenn Thompson’s proposed bill on Thursday in a vote that would split along party lines.
GOP farm bill increases crop subsidy ceiling by 24 percent
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.
GOP farm bill puts SNAP savings into trade and horticulture programs
House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn Thompson would funnel $10 billion in food stamp cuts into an expansion of trade promotion and horticulture programs as part of the new farm bill, said Republican staff workers on Thursday. One of them called opponents of SNAP cuts “hunger weirdos” who “use poor people as props.” (No paywall)
Some crops will get bigger reference price increases than others, Thompson says
If Congress follows his lead, some commodities will get larger increases in reference prices than others, but the new farm bill will provide a robust safety net for all producers, said House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn Thompson on Wednesday. Thompson said his proposed package, to be released in coming weeks, would remove some of the “guardrails” that limit the use of climate mitigation funding.
House Republicans embrace ‘pretty radical’ farm bill ideas — Vilsack
Most of the Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee — 21 of 29 — support "pretty radical" farm bill proposals at a time when only a bipartisan bill is sure of enactment, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Monday. "It just underscores the difficulty of getting to a farm bill" when control of Congress is almost evenly divided, he said.
Farm-state GOP senators call for higher crop insurance subsidies
Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee proposed a $4 billion injection into the crop insurance program so that the government would pay a larger share of the premiums on policies offering the highest levels of coverage. "We need more farm in the farm bill to get it passed," said Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota, the lead sponsor, on Tuesday.
Farm bill odds growing longer, says analyst
There is little reason for optimism that Congress will pass the new farm bill this year, wrote farm policy expert Jonathan Coppess on Thursday as part of an analysis showing that farm program payments favor Southern growers. “The chances of farm bill reauthorization in 2024 grow more dim with each passing day,” he said.
House conservatives would rewrite farm supports in Trump’s name
Congress would cut off crop subsidies to wealthy farmers and require growers to pay at least half of the cost of crop insurance premiums if it adopted the policies proposed by Donald Trump when he was president, said the Republican Study Committee in its budget outline for this fiscal year. The group, which speaks for social and fiscal conservatives, said its budget "adopts many of the reforms proposed by the Trump administration to reform and streamline federal spending on agricultural programs."
Republicans would put half of climate funding into commodity subsidies, says Stabenow
Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow rejected on Thursday a Republican proposal to move several billion dollars of climate funds into the commodity title of the farm bill. “No, the answer to that is no,” Stabenow said at an expo on climate-smart agriculture practices.
‘We need a safety net that works,’ say farm-state senators
Pointing to forecasts of a second year in a row of falling farm income, Republican senators called for more money for farm subsidies on Wednesday. “We’ve got to get it right for production agriculture” in the new farm bill, said North Dakota’s John Hoeven at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing.
Crop insurance costs to leap by 29 percent, says CBO
The federally subsidized crop insurance program will cost an additional $27.7 billion over the coming decade, said the Congressional Budget Office in projections released on Monday. The government pays roughly 62 cents of each $1 in premiums, and sales of livestock and forage policies are exploding.
USDA says $3 billion available to offset 2022 disasters
Row crop and specialty crop growers are eligible for more than $3 billion from the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) to offset losses from natural disasters in 2022, said the USDA. Administrator Zach Ducheneaux of the Farm Services Agency said 2022 "was another year of weather-related challenges — for some, the third consecutive year or more in a row."