Congressional leaders unveiled a massive year-end bill Tuesday evening that would provide $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers, plus a one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill and a provision allowing year-around use of E15.
The 1,547-page measure, which would keep the government funded until March 14, also contains $20.8 billion in disaster aid for agricultural losses.
The bill would delay for one year the deadline for small businesses, including farmers, to file ownership disclosure reports with the Financial Crimes Reporting Network, a Treasury Department agency known as FinCEN. The provision is based on a bill introduced by Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa. The current deadline is Jan. 1, although a Texas judge has at least temporarily blocked enforcement of the reporting requirement.
The $10 billion in assistance for row crop farmers, which will provide payments for commodities where the expected gross return is below the cost of production for 2024 crops, became a sticking point in final negotiations on the legislation when it appeared that it could be left out of the measure.
Farm groups representing row crops as well as the American Farm Bureau Federation and National Council of Farmer Cooperatives quickly mobilized and expressed opposition to the spending bill if the farm bill wasn’t included.
“The agriculture sector is really struggling,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday morning.
“They’ve effectively had three loss years, and commodity prices are a bit of a mess and input prices have skyrocketed because of Bidenomics. You put all those factors together, drought and all the other conditions, and you have a lot of small family farms and ranches, and people who supply the food for the country, in dire straits right now. Congress recognizes that need.”
In a defeat for retiring Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., the legislation won't bring into the farm bill baseline $14 billion unspent conservation funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. That move could have permanently increased funding for four conservation programs, but Johnson objected to addressing the IRA funding in this legislation.
House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., took credit for activating the outcry from farm groups over the weekend impasse on farm aid.
“I've never been so proud of the industry. They flexed their muscle and their voices, and it was amazing to watch what happened. … By Saturday afternoon, I think the message got to everybody that economic assistance was a must-do piece of this legislation.”
The bill also includes funding for several smaller farm bill programs, including urban agriculture research and extension, and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. Additionally, it includes four years of reimbursements to states for skimming of SNAP benefits. However, governors of states accepting reimbursement must be prepared to testify before the Ag Committee on how they failed to prevent the theft, Thompson said.
Corn growers, ethanol industry win E15 change
The E15 provision will represent a big win for corn growers and the ethanol industry, which has long struggled to get the Environmental Protection Agency to administratively waive emissions regulations that largely prevented the sale of the 15% blend during summer months.
“This language finally removes an outdated, red-tape regulatory barrier, and its adoption will benefit farmers, fuel retailers, and—most importantly—consumers seeking lower-cost, cleaner fuel options at the pump,” Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, said in a statement.
In a win for refiners, the bill includes a provision that says refineries that retired Renewable Fuel Standard credits and submitted petitions for small refinery exemptions in 2016 and 2017, but saw those petitions left outstanding as of Dec. 1, 2022, would have those credits returned. They'd also be deemed eligible for future compliance years, according to the bill text.
Similarly, small refineries that retired credits and submitted petitions for compliance year 2018 by Sept. 1 of 2019 and had outstanding or denied petitions as of Dec. 1, 2022, would see their credits returned and would be eligible for future compliance years.
GOP hardliners upset with leaders over bill
Congress needs to send the legislation to President Joe Biden by Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown. The continuing resolution that has been funding the government at fiscal 2024 levels since FY25 began Oct. 1 expires on Friday.
The farm bill extension would effectively give lawmakers until the end of 2025 to pass a new farm bill. The 2018 farm bill has already been extended for one year, but lawmakers have been unable to agree on a new one. A farm bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee was never brought to the House floor, and the Senate Agriculture Committee never considered a bill.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, who will take over as Senate majority leader in January, confirmed on the Senate floor Tuesday that a farm bill would be a priority for the chamber in 2025.
“Members should expect to take up a farm bill in 2025. We’re now more than a year overdue on the next bill and farmers and ranchers in my state and around the country are waiting for Washington to update farm programs to reflect current agriculture needs,” Thune said.
Some hardline conservatives expressed frustration that Johnson had agreed to include additional deficit spending in the bill rather than pushing the funding issues into 2025, when Republicans will control both chambers of Congress as well as the White House.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told reporters Republican leaders should have put the farm aid to a separate vote that forced Democrats to take a position on it.
"Instead, we get this negotiated crap and we're forced to eat this crap sandwich. Why? Because freaking Christmas is right around the corner," Roy said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said in a post on X, “The Swamp is using farmers and victims of natural disasters as pawns to fund an over-bloated pet project filled disaster.”
But Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, told Agri-Pulse farmers can’t wait until next year for aid. “This is a time to help our farmers and ranchers get through this next year until we get a new, modernized farm bill,” Duvall said, emerging from a meeting with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
Rebekah Alvey, Lydia Johnson and Noah Wicks contributed to this report.
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