House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson said Tuesday night he plans to move a bipartisan farm bill through the panel next month and that he has identified a way to pay for changes to commodity programs and crop insurance.
“We’ve found a way to fund — and robustly fund — the safety net programs,” the Pennsylvania Republican told Agri-Pulse in an interview off the House floor.
He declined during the interview to detail the funding mechanism but said “it's going to allow us to do what we know needs to be done in terms of safety net issues.” However, on Wednesday he said his plan required some modifications to USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation spending authority.
Democrats on the committee are scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss the potential legislation.
Thompson said no money would be shifted into the commodity program from the nutrition title or from Inflation Reduction Act conservation funding, both sources that Democrats have insisted on protecting.
Farm groups have been pushing Congress to increase the reference prices that trigger payments under the Price Loss Coverage program.
Thompson indicated that he still wants to impose restrictions on future updates to the economic model that’s used to adjust Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, an idea that has faced strong Democratic opposition because it would slow future benefit increases. His plan would likely cross a red line for Democrats, including Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
It’s easy to be “in the know” about what’s happening in Washington, D.C. Sign up for a FREE month of Agri-Pulse news! Simply click here.
"Bottom line, there's no cuts to benefits. And with what I'm proposing would provide a firewall so that a future administration couldn't arbitrarily cut benefits as well," he said.
Thompson, who has previously said he wanted to move the farm bill in March and then April, said the committee markup of the bill would be “sometime before Memorial Day.”
“This will be a very strong, bipartisan farm bill,” he said. “That was my goal from the beginning. And it's looks like we're realizing that that goal.”
Time is quickly running out for Congress to pass a new farm bill this year. Lawmakers will break for the Republican National Convention in July and have little action scheduled between from August until the November election.
The top Democrat on the committee, David Scott of Georgia, was asked separately by Agri-Pulse about the timing of farm bill action. “GT and I are good friends and we’re working closely together, and we’re going to make it happen,” he said. He said the bill would move on a joint timeline.
For more news, go to Agri-Pulse.com.
