The House Agriculture Committee’s Democratic minority on Wednesday released a set of farm bill principles making clear they are united in opposing any cuts in projected nutrition assistance or Inflation Reduction Act funding to pay for boosting commodity programs or addressing other parts of the farm bill.
The Democrats' memorandum also calls for increasing assistance for beginning and minority farmers and funding measures to “lower input costs for farmers; improve market competition and transparency; and lower barriers to entry” for producers.
“We will not compromise on our principles or shortchange on the promises made under the IRA or the nutrition title of the 2018 farm bill,” the committee’s senior Democrat, Georgia Rep. David Scott, told reporters ahead of the memo’s release.
He insisted Democrats are keeping “lines of communication open” with Republicans on the committee. “We’re negotiating in good faith,” he said.
Ohio Democrat Shontel Brown, the ranking member of the subcommittee that oversees commodity programs and crop insurance, said it’s “time to get serious” about passing a farm bill.
She said it’s up to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to identify new funding for the legislation.
“We’re laying out our priorities in the clearest manner possible so that we can get a bipartisan farm bill,” she said.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., has floated several ideas for funding priorities of both parties, including increases in Price Loss Coverage reference prices and an expansion of crop insurance products and assistance for specialty crops.
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Those proposals include reallocating some of the IRA’s conservation funding, and restricting the way the USDA conducts future updates of the Thrifty Food Plan, the economic model for the cost of eating that’s used to set SNAP benefits.
“Ensuring a robust domestic food supply without providing adequate food access to hungry American families is a non-starter,” the Democratic memo says.
As to reallocating the IRA funding, the memo says, “House Democrats will not support a farm bill that takes IRA conservation funding away from its intended purpose. Instead, it should build upon the progress already being made.”
The memo also says Democrats would oppose reallocating IRA funding that’s earmarked for renewable energy development.
Thompson also has suggested capping or eliminating USDA’s Section 5 authority under the Commodity Credit Corporation, an idea that isn’t directly addressed in the memo.
California Democrat Jim Costa, who chairs the subcommittee that oversees livestock, dairy and poultry policy, said the funding impasse threatens to tank the farm bill for this Congress.
“Unless we’re able to close on those differences I see a continuation of the status quo, which is basically the lack of a bipartisan agreement to reauthorize the farm bill,” he said.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has taken similar positions on cutting IRA and nutrition funding but has said that Senate Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has helped her identify about $5 billion in funding that could be put into a new farm bill. She hasn't disclosed the source or sources of the money.
Republicans on both the House and Senate Ag committees say that far more funding than that is needed for addressing commodity programs.
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