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.
‘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.
Put more climate change into the farm bill, suggests think tank
The next farm bill, "an unwieldy pile of programs," could be the vehicle to improve the Farm Belt's response to climate change while exercising restraint in commodity subsidies, said an American Enterprise Institute publication on Monday. In essays modeled on Christmas wish lists, seven agricultural economists expressed hopes ranging from more money for agricultural research to splitting the farm bill in two.
Crop insurance reform could save billions of dollars — GAO
Congress could achieve significant savings in the crop insurance program by reducing guaranteed payments to insurers and requiring wealthy operators to pay more for taxpayer-subsidized coverage, said the Government Accountability Office on Monday. The reforms could save billions of dollars on a program estimated to cost $101 billion over the next decade.
Senators propose a $250,000 ‘hard cap’ on farm subsidies
With the farm bill in mind, two Midwestern senators called for a "hard cap" of $250,000 in crop subsidies per farm, coupled with rules to limit the money to working farmers on Thursday. It would be an about-face in policy from recent years of easier access to USDA supports and emergency programs that paid up to $750,000 to corporate entities.
After a review, Senate ag leaders say more farm bill funding is needed
The 2023 farm bill is expected to be the most expensive ever but Congress will need additional funding to strengthen the farm and food safety nets, said the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee. In a letter, Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow and Republican John Boozman said additional funding would allow a transition away from the repeated bailouts that have cost more than $90 billion since 2018.
Avoid crop insurance ‘add ons’ in farm bill, say analysts
If it wants them, Congress should act directly to include goals such as climate mitigation in the farm bill rather than resort to crop insurance "add ons" that could meddle with the soundness of the federally subsidized program, said two analysts on Tuesday. Crop insurance is the largest federal support to agriculture, with an estimated cost of $15.5 billion this year.
One in seven on House ag panel collected farm payments
Eight current members of the House Agriculture Committee received farm subsidies at some point since 1998, said the Environmental Working Group on Tuesday. Seven of the eight describe themselves on their congressional websites as farmers or the offspring of a farm family.
USDA now obscures the names of some farm subsidy recipients
After decades of releasing the names of everyone who receives farm subsidy payments, the USDA has changed course, hiding the names of a portion of farm subsidy recipients. An advocacy group that publishes the data says that the decision to withhold recipient names obscures how billions of dollars of taxpayer money is spent.
‘Time to consider improvements’ in milk marketing system, say farm groups
The first update to the federal milk marketing system in nearly a quarter-century "should improve price discovery, improve the clarity of the program, continue to support timely payments to producers and reduce price incentives to de-pool milk," said a dozen U.S. farm groups on Monday. The groups said they believed the USDA would call a hearing in 2023 to address price formulas used in the marketing system.
Farm payments doubled during subsidy flood, says EWG
The government paid a record $41.6 billion in a variety of subsidies to farmers in 2020, double the amount they received in 2018, when the Trump-era cash gusher began flowing, said the Environmental Working Group on Wednesday.
Biden administration to oversee new coronavirus payments to farmers
Considering the time needed to convert legislation into action, the Biden administration will oversee the payment of most or all of the $13 billion in agricultural aid that was included in the latest coronavirus package, said Agriculture Undersecretary Bill Northey on Tuesday. Still, there was a chance that some funds could flow before the end of January, or even before the change in the administration on Jan. 20, Northey said during a news conference.
Record-high ag subsidies to supply 39 percent of farm income
Despite the effects of the pandemic and the trade war, U.S. farm income this year will be the highest since 2013 because of the largest federal payments ever — $46.5 billion, triple the usual amount, the government said on Wednesday. Think tank analysts said farm income would fall in 2021 with the expiration of Trump-era bailouts, but the drop-off will be lessened by the ongoing rally in commodity prices and increased ag exports.
USDA exempts family farms from limit on farm subsidy recipients
In a reversal, the USDA said on Wednesday that family-run farms are not subject to a rule that tightens eligibility standards for crop subsidies — the opposite of what it announced three months ago. A small-farm advocate criticized the "correction," which applies to the bulk of U.S. farms, as a violation of the rule-making process and encouraged the incoming Biden administration to void it.
Farm income cushion for 2021: Higher commodity prices
Crop and livestock prices have rebounded from coronavirus lows last spring and could bolster farm income as massive federal payments recede in 2021, said economists at a farm conference on Monday. Cortney Cowley of the Kansas City Federal Reserve cautioned “the path of this recovery is …
How high could farm subsidies go? $40 billion this year.
If farm subsidies were a crop, this year’s payments would fit the hoary rural adage, “big crops get bigger.” USDA supports, already forecast to set a record, could exceed $40 billion this year, thanks to the second round of coronavirus relief now available to farmers and …
Senate passes funding bill, House slows pace on coronavirus
On an 84-10 roll call vote, senators passed a short-term funding bill to keep the government open until Dec. 11, well after the November general election. Meanwhile, House Democrats delayed a vote on a $2.2 trillion coronavirus package that would increase SNAP benefits by 15 percent for one year and offer billions of dollars of additional assistance to farmers and ranchers.
Federal funding barrier: Billions more for farmers
President Trump wants a pre-election slush fund of up to $30 billion at USDA that he can spend with no strings attached, said the senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee on Monday as agricultural aid blossomed into a potential roadblock for a government funding bill. Republicans …