The 2018 farm bill, which was extended last year until the end of fiscal 2024, has expired again. What does that mean for major farm and nutrition programs?
It’s complicated, but here are nine key things you should know.
- In recent decades, it’s not unusual for farm bill programs to expire. When the 2002 farm bill expired, portions of it were extended six times in the spring of 2008 for less than a year in total, according to the Congressional Research Service. When the 2008 farm bill expired in 2012, some farm bill programs ceased new operations after Oct. 1, 2012, and others continued operating under appropriations acts.
- The federal crop insurance program is permanently authorized. It doesn't need to be reauthorized by a farm bill. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which accounts for most of the spending in the farm bill, is reauthorized through appropriations bills and continuing resolutions. As of Tuesday, the government is operating under a CR through Dec. 20.
- The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) extended four major conservation programs and their funding authority through fiscal 2031, the end of the IRA funding window: the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Stewardship Program, Agricultural Conservation Easement Program and Regional Conservation Partnership Program.
- The Conservation Reserve Program wasn't extended to 2031, so its authority expired Monday. The same is true for some small programs, including the Healthy Forest Restoration Program and Watershed Rehabilitation Program.
- The 2023 farm bill extension continued authorization for commodity programs through the 2024 crop year, and that time period varies depending on the commodity. Dairy is the first commodity affected, because authority for the Dairy Margin Coverage program expires Dec. 31. The 2024 crop year for other commodities extends until the harvest season for 2025 crops.
- Starting Jan. 1 for dairy and with the end of the crop year for other commodities, price support programs revert back to how they were written in the 1940s (known as permanent law.) Permanent law provides support based on a parity price from the 1910-1914 period that does not recognize productivity gains and technological advances in agriculture or modern marketing and policy approaches, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service. When a farm bill expires, the ensuing Jan. 1 has been dubbed the "dairy cliff," because that's when permanent law kicks in for that commodity, requiring USDA to begin taking steps to push up milk prices.
- Permanent law requires USDA to set support prices that would guarantee producers between 50% and 90% of the parity price and potentially double government payments for some commodities. For example, the mandated purchase price for milk would be $49.43 per hundredweight (cwt, or100 pounds) based on August 2024 data, more than 2 times (or 117% higher than) the current market price of milk ($22.80/cwt for all milk, according to the Congressional Research Service. Permanent law would also require USDA to announce acreage allotments and hold a referendum on marketing quotas – potentially requiring producers to cut back on production to receive payments.
- What else could be affected by the expiration of a farm bill? Programs that rely on mandatory funding authorizations in the farm bill are the most affected, according to CRS. Those include programs in farm bill titles III (Trade), VII (Research), IX (Energy), X (Horticulture), and XI (Miscellaneous). These programs represent about 1% of mandatory funding in the farm bill. Without reauthorization or an extension, these programs either may not have authority to operate or may not continue to receive new budget authority. The 2023 extension provided authority and new mandatory funding for 19 of 21 small programs in the 2018 farm bill that did not have a budget baseline,
- Members of Congress are continuing to talk about the need for a new farm bill with an eye toward possibly passing a bill after the Nov. 5 elections.
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