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.”
Vilsack says Republicans ‘just don’t have the votes’ for farm bill
The Republican-controlled House has not advanced a new farm bill because "they just don't have the votes" to pass a bill that is $33 billion over budget, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack over the weekend. Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow was more "practical," he said, by proposing a smaller increase in so-called reference prices and finding the money to pay for it.
Farm bill is on the lame-duck agenda of House Democrats
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries put the farm bill third on his short list of must-pass bills for the post-election session of Congress on Wednesday, behind averting a government shutdown and assuring military preparedness. The lame-duck session is the last chance to enact a new farm bill before lawmakers would have to start over in January, when a new Congress takes office.
Vilsack: Reference price increase is pivotal in farm bill negotiations
The salient question in farm bill negotiations is how large an increase to allow for so-called reference prices that trigger crop subsidy payments, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday. When that issue is resolved, it would be “relatively simple” to wrap up work on the legislation this year after months of deadlock, he said.
Number of food insecure Americans soars 40 percent in two years
Some 47.4 million Americans — roughly one of every seven — were food insecure during 2023, meaning they were unable at times to acquire enough food, said the Agriculture Department on Wednesday. It was a 40 increase in two years, and while the report did not suggest factors behind the rise, it coincided with the end of pandemic-era food assistance.
‘We’re stuck’ on the farm bill, says Stabenow
Republicans are unwilling to compromise on SNAP and climate funding in the new farm bill, and as a result, “we’re stuck,” said Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow. “The only way you get that done is if it’s bipartisan.” Progress on the farm bill has been stalled for months. House and Senate Republicans want large increases in crop subsidy spending, cuts in SNAP funding, and to be able to use climate funding for soil and water projects that do not capture carbon or reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Chairman vows to overrule CBO on question of overspending in GOP farm bill
The Republican-written House farm bill is $33 billion over budget and fails to pay for its large increase in crop subsidies, said congressional scorekeepers in an official cost estimate. House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson, who brushed aside earlier warnings about over-spending, said if the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office won't change its mind, he would rely on the House Budget Committee to overrule the CBO.
Analyst: Farm bill prospects nearly nonexistent this year
Except for the “lame duck long shot” of a post-election compromise, the slim chances that Congress will pass a new farm bill this year “have become nonexistent,” said farm policy expert Jonathan Coppess on Thursday. The primary reason is the “long-unspecified demand” by Republicans for higher crop subsidy spending without providing details, wrote Coppess, a USDA official during the Obama era, at the farmdoc daily blog.
House Democrats sink pilot project to limit SNAP purchases
On a voice vote Wednesday, minority-party Democrats deleted from the annual USDA-FDA funding bill a pilot project to block SNAP recipients from buying “unhealthy foods.” Democratic members of the House Appropriations Committee said the pilot project, authored by Republican Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, was paternalistic and impractical.
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.
Second year in a row of high SNAP payment error rates
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.
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.
Pilot project in USDA-FDA bill would limit SNAP purchases
The government would set up five pilot projects to keep SNAP recipients from buying "unhealthy foods" under a provision in the USDA-FDA funding bill released on Monday. The House bill also would block the USDA from implementing three fair-play regulations on livestock marketing and refuse to pay for "President Biden's bureaucratic pay increases."
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.
Environmental, anti-hunger groups join opposition to House farm bill
Anti-hunger groups, environmentalists, and fiscal conservatives are mobilizing against the House Republicans’ proposed farm bill ahead of its markup later this week, arguing that it benefits agribusiness at the expense of low-income people, taxpayers, and the climate.
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.
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.