The Farm Bill is kaput.
Congress failed to extend or replace the 2018 Farm Bill by the September 30 deadline, meaning it has expired.
Officially known as the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, the Farm Bill of 2018 is the most recent omnibus agriculture bill. It contained 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 current Congress has little time to work on the issue, otherwise it will have to leave it to the new Congress that takes over in January.
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.
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 receive 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 mentions that some programs will be stopped immediately because their day-to-day authority depends on the farm bill. This includes:
- 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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