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Administration renews call for crop insurance cuts

President Obama’s 2017 budget request to Congress includes a proposal to cut the federal crop insurance program by 18 billion dollars over ten years.

The proposed budget would reduce the subsidies provided to farmers for harvest price revenue coverage. It also calls for reforming prevented planting crop insurance.

The chairmen of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees criticized the White House proposal. Kansas Senator Pat Roberts said the administration “has once again chosen to attack America’s agriculture producers and their ability to manage risk”.  Roberts added that the budget proposals “are essentially dead on arrival”.

House Ag Committee chairman Michael Conaway said the proposed cuts to crop insurance would be “a severe blow to America’s farmers and ranchers who have already suffered a 56 percent drop in net farm income over the past two years”.

The National Farmers Union was also critical of the crop insurance proposal, saying “we simply cannot afford to undercut the farm safety net. But NFU also praised the budget proposal for its proposed research investments, including 700 million dollars in the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative and 106 million dollars for the development of bio-based energy sources.

One of the few voices in favor of the proposed crop insurance cuts was that of the Environmental Working Group (EWG).  EWG says crop insurance is a “bloated program” and “a misguided government handout”.