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Great Depression-era agricultural policies will follow if Congress cannot revive Farm Bill

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Great Depression-era agricultural policies will follow if Congress cannot revive Farm Bill

The Farm Bill, which was signed into law by President Donald J. Trump on December 20, 2018, died on October 1, but with Congress on a long election break until November 14, it has not yet been buried.

When Congress returns for the lame-duck session, it will have 20 days to either pass a new Farm Bill or dig up the old one with a new extension.

If we fail to accomplish either by January 1, 2025, the Permanent Right will take over agricultural policy just as it was written during the time of Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression. That wouldn’t be good for modern nutrition or “food stamp” programs and agricultural payments.

Farm Bills are outside permanent law and are typically updated every five or six years. The Farm Bill, known as the Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1938, included a built-in requirement to update it every five years.

Congress’s collapse over the Farm Bill has been blamed on inexperience, narrow majorities and the worst political polarization since the 1960s.

Officially known as the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, the expired farm bill is the most recent omnibus agriculture bill. It included 12 titles in November 2023. Congress approved a one-year extension until 2024.

But all that time is gone now.

The nearly $900 billion bill is dead, but some of the spending will continue through the end of the year.

That means the lame-duck Congress has just 20 days to put things right.

According to the Congressional Reserve Service (CRS), updates in the 2018 Farm Bill changed a number of agricultural commodity programs, expanded crop insurance, adjusted conservation programs, reauthorized and revised nutrition assistance, and expanded authority to fundraise for many USDS programs.

The CSR reports that four titles accounted for 99 percent of the 2018 farm bill’s mandatory spending: nutrition (primarily SNAP), commodities, crop insurance, and conservation. All other titles in the expired Farm Bill accounted for approximately 1 percent of mandatory expenditures and received primarily discretionary (appropriated) funds.

House Republicans, along with a few Democrats, passed a new Farm Bill earlier this year, but it never made any progress in the Senate.

Something seemed to be happening earlier this summer when House Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-PA, expressed support for a Senate framework that “elevates the urgent needs expressed and addressed by diverse stakeholders across the country common sense based solutions. ”

At the time, he said House Republicans “are eager to build on this momentum and pass a comprehensive farm bill that addresses needs across the agriculture value chain.”

According to Farm Bureau Chief Economist Roger Cryan, anything that falls apart has immediate consequences.

He lists some programs that will be halted immediately because their day-to-day authority depends on the farm bill. Among them are:

  • Numerous international programs, including the Market Access and Foreign Market Development Cooperator and Food for Progress trade promotion programs;
  • The Biobased Markets Program and the Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels;
  • Several important animal health programs;
  • Programs for socially disadvantaged, experienced, young and novice farmers;
  • The Specialty Crops Block Grants Program, and
  • The National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program.

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