By Ryan Hanrahan
E&E News’ Marc Heller reported Tuesday that “House Agriculture Chair Glenn Thompson said Tuesday that the spending cuts his panel is expected to make toward a budget reconciliation deal next week will probably be less than predicted.”
“Speaking to an annual gathering of agriculture reporters at the Capitol, Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican, said he thinks the amount the committee will be asked to contribute toward spending cuts will come in below the $230 billion in the House budget resolution, easing some of the pressure on lawmakers to squeeze programs such as low-income food assistance,” Heller reported. “‘Would I feel more comfortable with a number less than $230 billion? You bet,’ Thompson told the North American Agricultural Journalists.”
“Thompson met earlier in the day with committee Republicans for an update on the budget reconciliation bill. The GOP majority hopes to deliver to President Donald Trump a party-line deal on tax cuts, border security, energy and other priorities,” Heller reported. “House panels are beginning to mark up portions of the package this week. Agriculture and other panels are expected to get in on the action next week.”
Budget Reconciliation Likely to Include Farm Bill Provisions
Agri-Pulse’s Noah Wicks and Philip Brasher reported Tuesday that “House Ag Republicans are looking at including in the budget reconciliation bill the same commodity and crop insurance proposals that were in the committee’s farm bill last year, committee Chairman Glenn Thompson told a group of agricultural journalists on Tuesday.”
“Thompson, R-Pa., confirmed that the committee planned to debate its portion of the reconciliation bill next week,” Wicks and Brasher reported. “‘Absolutely,’ he replied, when asked if the reconciliation bill would include the commodity and crop insurance provisions that were part of the farm bill the committee advanced last May. The bill never got a floor vote.”
Progressive Farmer’s Chris Clayton reported that “if the bill language remains the same, farmers could see a 10% to 20% increase on statutory reference prices for ARC and PLC commodities. Increasing the statutory reference price also raises the ‘maximum effective reference price.’
“Also, the ARC guarantee would increase from 86% to 90% of benchmark revenue. The maximum payment rate for ARC-County and ARC-Individual also would increase from 10% to 12.5% of benchmark revenue,” Clayton reported. “At least some farmers also would get a one-time opportunity to establish base acres if they do not have base acres or their average planted and prevented planting acres do not exceed their base acres on the farm. Another provision would allow eligible acres to include a portion of acres planted to non-covered commodities.”
“For dairy, the bill would boost Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) from 5 million to 6 million pounds. It also provides a 25% discount for farmers that enroll in DMC for the life of the farm bill,” Clayton reported. “USDA’s disaster programs would also see various enhancements, including indemnities for the loss of unborn livestock.”
“In crop insurance, the bill could expand premium subsidy support for beginning farmers and ranchers,” Clayton reported. “The House farm bill also increased premium support for the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) to 80%, providing access to all commodities to a policy similar to the Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX) in cotton while also keeping SCO for Price Loss Coverage. Maximum coverage levels would be increased to 90% for Whole Farm Revenue Protection and SCO.”
“The increase in farm programs was scored last year as costing between $50 billion and $53 billion over 10 years,” Clayton reported.
Thompson Still Wants Standalone Farm Bill
Wicks and Brasher reported that “Thompson said he still wants to pass a standalone farm bill this year that would include provisions left out of the reconciliation bill. The budget reconciliation process is restricted to provisions that raise or lower spending and revenue. ‘If we’re able to accomplish some things in budget reconciliation and then we’re able to do what’s left over in the Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2025, it all gets put back together as one big, happy bill,’ Thompson said.”
Clayton reported that “Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said that getting a farm bill done will require the backing of the Trump administration. Klobuchar said she’s been very disturbed and concerned about moves by the administration and the impacts on the rural economy.”
“Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he supports updating ARC and PLC in the reconciliation package and then tweaking other programs later,” Clayton reported. “‘We wouldn’t do reconciliation in lieu of the farm bill. It would be in addition.'”
Source : illinois.edu