Senate Agriculture Chairwoman, Debbie Stabenow, said she would delay the new farm bill, already five months overdue, to 2025 rather than accept cuts in SNAP and climate funds. “Tell you what: If we get to the end of the year and instead of a farm bill, I have protected nutrition for children and families in this country, I’m okay with that,” said Stabenow.
The so-called four corners of the farm bill, the leaders of the Senate and House Agriculture committees, have been at an impasse for months, mired in disputes over crop subsidy spending, SNAP, and climate funds. Republicans want to increase reference prices, making it easier to trigger crop subsidy payments, and would use climate funds to pay for it. They also want to eliminate a provision for a review every five years of the Thrifty Food Plan, used to determine the cost of a healthy diet and whether to adjust SNAP benefit levels.
Stabenow was the first of the farm bill leaders to say the farm bill could be a year away. Congress has extended the life of the 2018 farm law, which expired last October 1, through this fall.
House Agriculture Chairman Glenn Thompson, always optimistic about farm bill prospects, said earlier this month that he hoped to move a bill in the House in the near term. He also said an extension of the 2018 farm law was possible. “A lot of things are out of my control,” he said.
“So that’s where we are. We’re in a stare-down,” said Stabenow, who will retire at the end of the year. “If that means we continue the policies of the 2018 farm bill, which are pretty good, if I do say so myself, then that’s okay. That’s okay with me because we aren’t going backwards on feeding people. And we’re not going to go backwards, by the way, on the climate conservation money that we also have there, that is so critical and hitting farmers over the head every single day in terms of the climate crisis.”
The new farm bill would cost around $140 billion a year. SNAP would account for 80 cents of each $1 in outlay.
EDITOR’S TAKE:
It is not unusual for Congress to kick the can down the road if they can’t reach an agreement on a given issue. This would not be the first time a farm bill has been delayed. And, let’s face it, the big issue is typically the SNAP program. One reason urban legislators always take an interest in the so-called farm bill has to do with the food and nutrition title of that legislation. Farmers/ranchers are more concerned about conservation, marketing and insurance programs within the farm bill. The real agenda at stake here is who will control the purse strings when the farm bill is finally reauthorized in 2025, or whenever it happens. In the interim, farmers and ranchers are less concerned about government programs today, but certainly view it as a foundation when markets are simply not enough to sustain them financially. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – agriculture is a national security interest! No agriculture – no food, fiber, feed, fuel. We simply cannot survive without farmers/ranchers. Be sure you help us salute them when we celebrate their contributions during AgRally on Tuesday, March 19, as part of National Ag Day!
