How Does the Farm Bill Funding Process Work?

It's not as simple as you might think. House Ag Chair G.T. Thompson shares a rundown of the funding and extension processes. He says the ag committees need to find new dollars to expand the farm bill budget.
It's not as simple as you might think. House Ag Chair G.T. Thompson shares a rundown of the funding and extension processes. He says the ag committees need to find new dollars to expand the farm bill budget.
(U.S. House of Representatives)

The Senate and House Ag committees are facing delays in drafting the next farm bill, and it was expected to be the most expensive farm bill to date, clocking in at around $1.5 trillion.

However, Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow, (D-Mich.) said in a Senate Ag Committee hearing that there will be no new funding for the new farm bill. This means any increase in funding for programs will require reallocating money from other parts of the bill.

Funding is a primary reason the bill could held up, according to House Ag Chair G.T. Thompson, who is spearheading the farm bill. He shared a rundown of the farm bill funding process and implications on Wednesday with Jim Wiesemeyer, Profarmer policy analyst, and Davis Michaelsen, AgriTalk host,

Q: Do the current issues between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the far-right House GOP members mean no additional funding for a new farm bill?

Thompson: “No, absolutely not. There's no real bearing or implications that I see with a small group of folks who have really tried to hold the House hostage here. Speaker McCarthy has been a great ally in the farm bill process so far. He understands the seriousness, the logistics to make it happen, what's needed. One important point is: We’ve never had Republican leadership rowing in the same direction when it comes to a farm bill as it now is with Speaker McCarthy, Scalise, Stefanik and Whip Emmer. We're working together on everything from member education to future whip operations. As our Budget Views and Estimates letter said, there really is no better return on investment when it comes to federal funding."

Q: You listed those figures and they're good ones for the ag sector. Does that mean you've convinced House Speaker McCarthy for additional funding beyond the baseline because some mainstream farm groups say they'd rather have an extension than a baseline farm bill?

Thompson: “An extension is short sighted, and it really falls short of us making the refinements needed. I use a baseball analogy when it comes to the farm bill: We're rounding first base, and that means we're really doing a great job and probably beginning to wrap up the fact-finding, audit phase. We're going to be on course to do this by what I've always committed to--completing a farm bill on time. We've made the case again that a successful farm bill enhances our farm safety net for our producers and a baseline funded bill does not mean that we can't make program improvements. But I'm not rooting for the extension. We must invest in the safety net for our farmers and ranchers. I think the Speaker heard that loud and clear from those in attendance in Tulare, California, when we were at the world ag exposition."

Q: What does the farm bill spending game plan look like?

Thompson: "We need to find new dollars. And I think one of the allies that we haven't had is quite frankly Budget Chairman Jody Arrington (R-Texas). He's a great aggie himself. I think there are efficiencies that can bring us some new dollars, just as we look at incorporating some of the disaster relief that we normally spend in an emotional way. Anytime you do that you don't do it efficiently. The Senate usually puts in some additional legislation on must-pass pieces of legislation. It would spend a lot of money and not all that very smartly. By incorporating some of that disaster relief into crop insurance, we will enhance crop insurance, making it more attractive for more subscriptions. At the same time. I think we can do that by spending less money. We'll bring new dollars in and that's just one of a number of ideas we have when there's a recognition that in certain areas, certain titles of the farm bill, we need to find some new dollars.”

Q: You can move around dollars even though Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has said don't go into one area to get more funding elsewhere?

Thompson: “The House will chair the farm bill this time around. But I think there's dollars to be had and common sense tells us especially when we've been going through such an emotional time of spending, look at the trillions of dollars just in the past two and a half years. We're talking trillions of dollars. You can't tell me some of that was not spent emotionally and was appropriated. The funding is sitting out there in different corners of the federal government. And I'm talking things specific to agriculture.”

Q: Will some of those refinements include a voluntary update of base acres chairman, because soybean and other grower groups want that, while others don't. But getting base acre data is like looking into a black hole trying to get accurate data. We understand your committee staff is working with USDA to get some information. Is that correct?

Thompson: “We definitely are working on a deep dive on all the information we need, and base acres is one of those areas. This is something you need to have good data to be able to do. Having base acres is like winning the lottery. What about those new young and beginning farmers that do not have base acres, but we're relying on them to feed us well into the future for decades? Their base acres is something that has come up a lot in our listening sessions across the country and it's certainly something we're looking at right now. We really don't have any conclusions at this point.”

Q: On food stamps, we know you've been wanting to expand language beyond what the debt limit package included… you want to expand career and technical education to those excluded from the work requirements for food stamps. Is that correct?

Thompson: “There's a lot that we need to look at. I was pleased that the Speaker came to me and asked me what we should put forward in the debt ceiling. He wanted something that was going to perhaps save some money and at the same time, not blow up the farm bill process. We were able to accomplish that. The fact that we ​r​educed the percentage of waivers that states can use. We zeroed out as of the first of the year… hundreds of thousands of waivers states stockpiled basically exempting anyone from having access to the SNAP employment and career and technical education benefits.

Q: What implications from the debt ceiling will spill over to titles in the farm bill, such as the biggest piece of the funding pie, SNAP?

Thompson: I was very disappointed in what the president and his people put into the debt ceiling package related to this. They basically excluded folks who are homeless, people who are veterans and young adults 18 year old… foster youth who all of a sudden overnight become adults and therefore some of them leave their foster homes with all their life belongings in a garbage bag. This is a pretty sad situation. They essentially put language into the debt ceiling measure that prevented anyone within those three groups of having access to the SNAP employment, career and technical education benefits that we provide by waiving that opportunity for them. That's something we need to look at.”

Q: Will you seek to get language in the farm bill to curtail USDA’s ability to tap the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act for funding. House Republicans in the FY 2024 appropriations bill includes this language. Will that also be a topic in the farm bill debate?

Thompson: “It's certainly going to be a topic. As you noted, the current proposed bill from the Ag Appropriations Subcommittee reinstated some guardrails that would limit the Secretary's discretionary authority to use the CCC and then, quite frankly, that's where it belongs. That could be very, very helpful if it survives the appropriation process. A recent GAO report reinforced the fact that the climate smart commodity pilot program should have gone through a rulemaking process. And Secretary Vilsack circumvented Congress and while I like working with the secretary, I was not happy with what happened there. From the Ag committee's perspective, I'm concerned that using the farm bill to legislate sideboards around USDA interpretations of the CCC authority would impede the ability of a future Ag Secretary so we should exercise our oversight authority, and we are definitely doing that at this point.”

 

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