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One-sided Farm Bill could make crop insurance more vulnerable

The Ranking Member of the House Agriculture Committee says Chairman Mike Conaway’s decision to move the Farm Bill ahead without Democrats makes crop insurance more vulnerable.

 

While discussing the partisan feud over Republican proposals to make eligibility requirements in the SNAP program stricter, Congressman Collin Peterson tells Brownfield a one-sided Farm Bill will probably get picked apart on the House floor.

“Because under those circumstances we may lose some of these amendments (including) crop insurance because we’re divided.  It’s not a good situation.  We (Democrats) are willing to make changes in SNAP, we just don’t agree with what (Republicans) are doing.”

Peterson has concerns about a possible cap on the federal share of crop insurance premiums, which he says would be disastrous.

“The re-insurers have been in my office questioning whether it makes sense for them to stay in business, even under the existing circumstances.  So they’re not particularly happy about it, and without the re-insurance the system collapses.  So they could very easily screw up crop insurance.”

Peterson says that would be an unmitigated disaster.