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Farm bill has bumpy road ahead

 

A farm policy specialist questions if a farm bill will be passed in 2018.

Jonathan Coppess with the University of Illinois tells Brownfield the House Ag Committee is right to push for farm bill discussions after the first of the year, but first Congress needs a budget.  “Early January I don’t think is unrealistic for the committee, I think it gets a lot cloudier outside of the committee realm.”

He says holding up the process is the tax bill which could add more than a trillion dollars to the national deficit, more than likely creating even less funding for the farm bill.  “What we’ve learned from past farm bill discussions is those kinds of budget pressures or anything that creates budget pressure really creates a challenge for a farm bill and the politics of making changes to farm assistance, dealing with the supplemental assistance program, and things like that.”

Coppess says farm bill work could also be delayed if Congress picks up the welfare reform discussion after the first of the year and 2018 is a mid-term election year which will even further complicate progress.  “One of the reasons that I presume that Chairman Conaway and even Roberts have made indications that they want to move as quickly as they can into 2018 is that that calendar gets really unfavorable the closer you get to the election date.”

He says especially with tighter budget restrictions, coalitions of groups can be the most effective bringing to light the most important aspects of the legislation and improving policies like SNAP or crop insurance.

Coppess spoke with Brownfield during the recent Illinois Farm Economics Summit in DeKalb.

AUDIO: Interview with Jonathan Coppess