Inside D.C.

Tight Dollars Putting Farm Bill on a Fast Track?

Congress – at least the two ag committee components – are seriously serious about the Farm Bill.  While we’ve talked about the 2018 version of the omnibus farm program package – the current Farm Bill expires September 30, 2018 – the folks in charge are talking about a done deal by the end of this year.

This rhetoric is expected at this point in the evolution of the Farm Bill.  However, this time the accelerated scheduled is all about the money – or lack thereof – available to underwrite the monster legislation. Until recent days, the evolution of the new Farm Bill has been guided by House and Senate agriculture committee traditional hearings and listening sessions, but a painful and public budget battle a few weeks ago between House Agriculture Committee Chair Mike Conaway (R, TX) and Budget Committee Chair Diane Black (R, TN) – Conaway was able to hold the budget line for his efforts – illustrates how limited treasury dollars are likely to translate into limited program fixes, let alone new or expanded programs.  Understand: Conaway is fighting for what he’s got, not for what he’d like to have.

On timing, Conaway used his House Agriculture Committee hearing this week, to tell his panel and the public he plans to begin drafting his version of the bill within the next two months, with an eye toward getting a bill to the floor this year to avoid any need for painful program extensions that can plague the process.  At the latest, he said, he wants the bill on the House floor by the first quarter, 2018.

Senate Ag Committee Chair Pat Roberts (R, KS) says he wants to move a bill “as soon as possible,” but stops short of setting an end date.  Roberts has survived too many farm bills – he’s the only member of Congress to sit as chair of both House and Senate ag committees – to second guess politics, floor schedules, competing issues, 11^th-hour blow-ups, etc.

Ag committee member, but more importantly Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) appeared at last week’s Senate ag panel review of commodity programs and federal crop insurance, to introduce a Kentucky witness, telling the panel he looks forward “to writing a new farm bill in 2018.”   Roberts, however, allowed he’s already asked McConnell for two days of floor time for the bill when it reaches the floor, and warned the Kentucky lawmaker he will be “knocking on your door” when he’s got consensus on the bill. Roberts told reporters after the hearing, “We think that sooner is better than later.”  McConnell agrees.

Last week’s Senate hearing ended with both Roberts and ranking panel member Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) telling reporters they will move the basic 2014 omnibus farm program “framework” with only relatively small changes.  “Now is not the time for revolutionary change,” said Roberts.  “Stability and predictability are the two key words.”  Said Stabenow to the media, “We’re looking at fine tuning and not anything dramatic.”

Implicit in those statements is acknowledgement the available tax dollars to pay for a new Farm Bill are not there, and congressional support for increasing the package’s baseline has not emerged.  At the same time, the closer a final Farm Bill votes get to the November, 2018, mid-term elections, the tougher it will be to hold together bipartisan support for what’s become an unnecessarily controversial package.

That long-time ag policy critics are crafting their own farm bills to reinvent farm programs while claiming to save money is also a sign the overall effort is getting serious.  Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D, OR), an outspoken liberal House member and a man who is no fan of federal farm programs, will present his own omnibus farm bill this fall after releasing this week a report, “Growing Our Opportunities: Reforming the Farm Bill for Every American.”

Blumenauer said his comprehensive food/farm legislation will “refocus federal resources on those who need it most, foster innovation, encourage investments in people and the planet, and ensure access to healthy foods.”  The legislative option is the result of his “Sing Your Own Farm Bill” project, engaging Oregonians to create “a more visionary, equitable, and cost-effective Farm Bill.”  He says his bill will focus on “excessive spending” in commodity programs; cutting “wasteful crop insurance;” investing in increased resources and land access for beginning/small farmers; strengthening nutrition and feeding programs; reducing food waste, with more resources going to the needy; reforming conservation programs to be more cost-effective; enhancing innovative research and development of organic and sustainable agriculture, and focusing federal investments in local and regional food systems.

“For too long the Farm Bill has helped the wrong people grow the wrong food in the wrong places,” said Blumenauer. “We need the right food and farm policy that will help all families and farmers.”