WASHINGTON — Comprehensive legislation that would set food and agriculture policy for the next five years is in limbo as lawmakers decide its fate after the election.
The deadline to file a farm bill passed unceremoniously at midnight on September 30, with no pressure from lawmakers to pass or extend a novel farm bill.
Congress will have to fight its way through a dead-end session that’s scheduled to begin Nov. 12 to reach an agreement on the farm bill before benefits run out at the end of the year — which, if it finally allows, will have earnest consequences.
The law began 90 years ago with various payments to farmers, but now has an impact far beyond farms, encompassing programs to create habitat for wildlife, combat climate change and provide the nation’s largest federal nutrition program.
The Ag coalition is in shambles
The overall farm bill is delayed by more than a year as the bipartisan coalition in Congress that has advanced farm bills for the past half-century teeters on the brink of collapse.
Congress must approve a novel federal farm bill every five years. The previous 2018 farm bill expired a year ago. Since no agreement was in sight at that time, legislators extended the validity of the act until September 30, 2024.
The delay creates further uncertainty for farmers, who face falling prices for many crops and rising costs of fertilizers and other inputs.
Lawmakers have some buffer before Americans feel the consequences of the expiration.
Most key programs will be funded through the end of the calendar year, but when the novel crop year begins in January, they will revert to “permanent law,” sending crop support back to the policies of the 1938 and 1949 Farm Bills.
According to a recent report, these policies are inconsistent with contemporary agricultural practices and international trade agreements and could cost the federal government billions analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
“Groundhog Day” quoted by Vilsack
The standoff between Democrats and Republicans over the farm bill has centered on how to pay for it and whether to place limits on food and climate programs.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters during a press call Saturday that the process is “like Groundhog Day” — because he keeps having the same conversations about it. Vilsack said Republicans “simply don’t have the votes” on the floor on the legislation passed by the House Agriculture Committee, which is why it sat dormant in the House for four months.
“If they want to pass a farm bill, they need to be practical and either lower their expectations or raise their resources. And if they’re going to raise resources, they have to do it in a way that they don’t lose votes and actually gain votes,” said Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa.
The Republican-led committee approved the farm bill proposal mainly along party lines in behind schedule May amid complaints from Democrats that the process was not as bipartisan as in previous years.
Partisan division is not uncommon in today’s Congress, but it is noticeable in the farm bill, which historically it has brought together legislators on both sides of the corridor. Final passage may require bipartisan support because the size of the $1.5 trillion farm bill means the inevitable loss of some votes from fiscal conservatives and others.
Threat of shutdown
Lawmakers are on borrowed time with both the farm bill and appropriations bills that fund the federal government.
The Both the House and Senate approved stopgap spending bills in behind schedule September to avoid a partial government shutdown. The short-term funding bill, sometimes called the Continuing Resolution, or CR, will keep the federal government in operation until December 20.
Some agriculture leaders have asked for a resolution not to extend the Farm Bill to aid them postpone work on the bill when they return.
The day after CR was approved and left the Capitol, 140 House Republicans sent a letter to congressional leaders asking for the farm bill to be a priority in the final weeks of 2024.
“Farmers and ranchers do not have the luxury of waiting until the next Congress to pass an effective farm bill,” the letter states, noting rising production costs and falling commodity prices are putting farmers in a hard position.
House Democrats also say they want to pass a novel farm bill this year.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, listed the farm bill as one of his top three priorities on the lame duck issue. His list also included appropriations and the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets Pentagon policy.
“It will be important to see if we can find a path forward and reauthorize the Farm Bill to make sure that we can meet the needs of farmers, meet the needs of everyday Americans from a nutritional standpoint, and continue the progress that we have been able to make if this is about fighting the climate crisis,” Jeffries said in remarks to reporters on September 25.
Nearly 300 members of the National Farmers Union visited lawmakers in September to ask for passage of a novel five-year farm bill before the end of 2024.
“Family farmers and ranchers cannot wait – they need certainty that there will be a new farm bill this year,” National Farmers Union President Rob Larew said in a statement after the meetings. “With farm net income projected to be at an all-time low, growing concentration in the agricultural sector, high production costs and interest rates, and more frequent and devastating natural disasters, Congress cannot miss the opportunity to pass a five-year farm bill.”
Misunderstandings about the SNAP formula
The key dispute for Democrats this year, it’s a funding calculation that will place limits on the “Frugal Food Plan” formula that calculates benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP.
This would keep SNAP payments at current levels but permanently freeze the ability of future presidents to raise levels of food assistance. Democrats characterized it as an insidious reduction in needed support for hungry Americans, rendering the bill dead on passage.
Republicans exploit these limits as part of their funding calculations to offset other expenses in the bill. The bill would raise price supports for certain crops such as cotton, peanuts and rice.
“They have to do one of two things,” Vilsack said of lawmakers. “They either need to realize that they can’t afford all the things they would like to be able to afford if they want to stay within their actually available resources… Another alternative would be to find more money.”
Vilsack recommended finding other sources of funding beyond the Farm Bill, such as changes to the tax code.
“You close a loophole here or there in terms of taxes or whatever and you generate more revenue, and that revenue directly offsets the increase in farm bills. … This is the right way. And frankly, that’s how Senator Stabenow is approaching the farm bill,” Vilsack said, referring to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
The Senate Agriculture Committee had no public comments or formal introduction of the bill. But leaders say commission staff meet weekly to discuss next steps. Stabenow has not publicly disclosed the amounts that will be eligible for transfer to the account.
