U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack made an appearance at the last day of World Dairy Expo on Friday, and among the topics he discussed was the timely question of progress on the next farm bill. The extension of the 2018 Farm Bill that was put into place last fall when a new agreement could not be nailed down expired on September 30 of this year, with no new bill in place once again.
The U.S. House Agriculture Committee passed and marked up its version of the bill in May, but it has not been voted on yet. The Senate Committee on Agriculture has also released its framework, and discussions have stalled over policy disagreements.
“It’s pretty simple, really,” Vilsack explained of the situation. “There’s a focus and a desire on the part of some in Congress to increase reference prices for producers. Reference prices impact about 22 major commodities out of over 100 that are grown and raised in the United States. And within those commodities, there’s really about a half dozen that would benefit from what’s been proposed by the House Ag Committee.”
To pay for those higher reference prices, as well as other proposed increases, the committee wants to “essentially reduce SNAP benefits over a 10-year period,” the Secretary said of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That is a dealbreaker for some members of Congress because SNAP access for older recipients was already cut to raise the debt ceiling earlier in this Congress with the understanding that there would be no more changes to the program.
Additionally, the plan includes restricting USDA’s use of the Commodity Credit Corporation to save money. Vilsack explained that these are the funds the department uses to invest in programs they are targeting to help small and mid-sized farms: investing in local food systems, climate-smart agriculture practices, and additional revenue streams for these farms.
While the committee has the power to restrict that usage, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has determined that the change would not be enough to pay for what is being proposed, Vilsack said. While the House Ag Committee believes the move would save $30 billion to $40 billion, the CBO predicts it is more like $10 billion.
Vilsack said that deficit and the change to SNAP make it likely that the House bill would fail in a vote, explaining why it hasn’t been put up for one yet.
“We’re faced with a dilemma of whether or not we’re going to reduce our expectations in terms of reference prices and increases or we’re going to find additional resources to be able to pay and cover the deficit so that you can put together the votes sufficient to pass the bill,” he summarized. “Right now, expectations have not been lowered and new money has not been identified.”
There is a renewed urgency among farm organizations in urging Congress to get a farm bill completed, Vilsack noted. The goal, of course, is to get something passed by the end of the year. If that does not happen, things will get much more complicated because a new Congress will be taking office in January. “Then you have to start all over,” the Secretary said.
Federal order decisions near
The government process that is likely even more pressing for dairy farmers is the final ruling USDA will make on the Federal Milk Marketing Order system. The department put out its recommended decision based on the five-month hearing process in July, and comments were accepted on those recommendations until September 13.
Vilsack could not specifically discuss the process because USDA is still sorting through all of the comments that were submitted, a number of which he said were from dairy farmers. However, he did offer insight as to a timeline for USDA’s announcement.
“I would expect an anticipated decision coming out of the administration sometime in mid-November,” he said.
