It has been a long couple of years of negotiations to develop a new farm bill to replace the one that originally expired last fall. With minimal progress made last year, the 2018 bill was extended through the end of September 2024 in the hope that progress could be made this year. There have been positive movements since, but Congressional leaders are indicating that more stagnation could very well be possible.
The Agriculture Committee of the House of Representatives passed their approved version of the bill back in May, and last month, the House Appropriations Committee released their proposed funding bill for 2025, including agriculture spending. Funding for certain departments and areas have been approved so far, but that process still needs to continue, and last week, Representative Glenn “G.T.” Thompson said the House will not take up their farm bill until appropriations are complete. That appears to be sometime in September.
His remarks came during a forum held at the Republican National Convention last week where the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, John Boozman of Arkansas, also offered comments on their farm bill version. Thompson chairs the House Agriculture Committee, but as Democrats have the majority in the Senate, the committee and the farm bill there are headed up by Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Stabenow released a framework for a Senate farm bill in May, but more concrete details have not yet been shared.
Most notably, Boozman recognized the economic and other production challenges farmers have faced since the last farm bill was constructed. He discussed a need for “resetting the safety net,” as reported by Politico, and suggested that another extension of the 2018 Farm Bill would be better than passing a new bill that does not include significant changes to reference prices for crop subsidy payments.
That doesn’t mean he and other Senators have given up on getting a farm bill done this year, Boozman continued. Yet it was not a particularly promising statement in a process that has already dragged on and been fraught with back-and-forth on the broad range of policies that make up the farm bill.
Discussion is part of the process, but the farm bill presents a unique challenge in that it must balance the needs of so many areas ranging from food assistance to on-farm policies. Disagreements have been particularly problematic over the nutrition programs, which make up about 75% of the farm bill spending. The 2018 bill was estimated to cost $428 billion, and allocating that kind of money takes time. Unfortunately, the clock has continued to tick on a new farm bill that’s needed to provide producers with effective support and consumers with valuable food access.
