The Congressional Budget Office is expected today to issue its full cost estimate for the farm bill approved by the House Ag Committee in May.
The CBO score is expected to show that the bill isn’t fully paid for, according to a source familiar with the agency’s work. CBO won’t give House Ag Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., the savings estimate he wants for suspending USDA’s Section 5 spending authority through the Commodity Credit Corporation. That would leave the option of getting Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, to direct CBO to give the score the committee needs.
Is there an option to a farm bill extension?
Congress is now in recess until the second week of September, with only three weeks of legislative action scheduled until after the Nov. 5 elections. So, time is fast running out to get a farm bill done.
Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., isn’t ready to say whether another extension of the 2018 farm bill will be needed. There’s still “a lot of work left to do” to get a farm bill passed, she told Agri-Pulse ahead of the recess. She insisted she’s still trying to get a bill done but that it’s been a “disappointingly slow process.”
Take note: Leaders of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives say an extension is becoming an unpalatable option for producers as commodity prices continue to decline. At the group’s Washington conference Thursday there was discussion about the possibility of some kind of bridge or supplemental funding to provide income support for growers until a full farm bill can be passed.
NCFC President and CEO Chuck Conner told members of the group that they need to strategize on what could be passed during a lame duck session. Enacting a comprehensive farm bill this year is a “very, very heavy lift’ and “quickly becoming … not even a credible message at this point.”
Smith says Republican Congress can pass TPA
Speaking on Agri-Pulse Newsmakers this week, House Ways and Means Committee member Adrian Smith, R-Neb., says he believes a Republican Congress would vote to revive the president’s trade promotion authority. Republicans hope to win control of the Senate in November as well as maintain their hold on the House.
Renewing the lapsed TPA, or fast-track negotiating authority, would allow the president to pursue trade agreements without amendments from Congress and is considered essential to getting new deals done.
Smith also says renewing the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and the General System of Preferences would provide valuable tools to “solidify our supply chains.”
Newsmakers will be available today at Agri-Pulse.com.
Tax bill will have to wait
The House-passed tax bill remains stalled in the Senate, after all but three Republicans voted against taking up the legislation Thursday. Only 48 senators voted to consider the bill, far short of the 60 needed.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, however, has the right to bring up the bill again before the end of the year, because he switched his vote to no.
Why it matters: In addition to expanding the child tax credit, the bill would restore full bonus depreciation and expand the Section 179 expensing allowance.
‘Dead zone’ bigger than usual, NOAA finds
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says this year’s “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, which is fed by nutrients that flow done the Mississippi River, is about the size of New Jersey.
The 6,705-square mile area of low to no oxygen is the 12th-largest recorded in 38 years of measurement, according to NOAA. The average size over the past five years is about 4,300 square miles, more than twice the targetl of the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force.
That state/federal partnership has set a goal of reducing the five-year average to less than 1,900 square miles by 2035.
Family Farm Alliance welcomes USDA Western water funding
The Family Farm Alliance, which represents irrigators across the West, is applauding USDA’s announcement of a new program offering irrigation districts funding to pay producers to cut back on water use.
Over half of the irrigation districts selected to receive funding belong to the Family Farm Alliance. The funding can be used to pay farmers for irrigation system improvements, crop switches, or other water-reducing actions.
“Irrigation districts are governed by the farmers and ranchers they serve,” says Dan Keppen, the group’s executive director. "Putting those districts in the driver’s seat to work with USDA will in turn allow the districts to work with their producers to determine the best specific strategies for water conservation."
Senate would give $30 million more than House to Wage and Hour Division
A Senate spending bill that advanced through committee Thursday would boost spending for the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division by $7.5 million in fiscal 2025.
The Senate Appropriations Committee bill would give the division $267.5 million, well above the $235 million approved by the House Appropriations Committee in July. The division’s duties include enforcing laws to protect farmworkers.
The funding for the Wage and Hour Division is just one of many differences between the two bills, which also fund the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education. The top-line number for the Senate bill is $231.4 billion; the House’s number is $185.8 billion.
Final word: “When we go to the Hill with members of Congress, they have told us up to this point they’re not feeling that much pressure to pass a farm bill this time around. They don’t feel like there will be any cost at the ballot box right now to do nothing on the farm bill.” – Chuck Conner, president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, at the group’s Washington conference Thursday.
Philip Brasher, Lydia Johnson and Noah Wicks contributed to today’s Daybreak.
