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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Saturday, June 01, 2024
A new five-year farm bill that enhances existing programs while offering new assistance to less traditional forms of agriculture and legalizing industrial hemp easily won final congressional approval from the House on Wednesday, sending the measure to President Donald Trump for his signature.
The new farm bill expected to head to President Donald Trump’s desk within days is making history with the breadth of support inside and outside Congress. The reason is plain to see in its 540 pages.
A compromise farm bill ready for final congressional votes melds a variety of Senate and House improvements to the major commodity programs, boosts spending on several major conservation programs while also creating a new $30 million a year program to fight animal diseases.
The new farm bill largely preserves the commodity and conservation programs but it includes some significant improvements for dairy producers and also would raise price floors for sugar and other commodities.
Farm groups welcomed news that negotiators had reached agreement on a new farm bill, but key details were being kept under wraps while lawmakers waited to learn whether the final cost estimates would force them to tweak the text.
An 18-year-old debate over whether farmer cooperatives should be allowed to share crop insurance profits with their members has flared up behind closed doors as negotiators try to finish a new farm bill.
The four lead farm bill negotiators failed to reach a deal in time to avert Sunday’s expiration of the 2014 law, but they emerged from a one-hour meeting Wednesday to say they are committed to finalizing an agreement that Congress can consider following the mid-term elections.
The 2014 farm bill is set to expire in just over one week, raising concerns about disruptions in a number of programs, including one of the largest conservation programs as well as much smaller programs that help commodity groups open overseas markets.
A bipartisan farm bill that would protect crop insurance and commodity programs as well as nutrition assistance from cuts passed the Senate by an overwhelming margin, 86-11, clearing the way for negotiations to begin next month with the House.
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