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 Every
five years the farm bill expires and a new one is drafted. It goes
through an extensive process where it is proposed, drafted, debated,
and passed by Congress before it is signed into law by the
President. The first farm bill was passed in 1933 and was 24 pages
in length. The 2018 farm bill had 529 pages. Each farm bill has a
name, the current farm bill is titled the Agriculture Improvement
Act of 2018. The bill’s chapters are called titles. The 2018 farm
bill has twelve titles: Commodities, Conservation, Trade, Nutrition,
Credit, Rural Development, Research, Forestry, Energy, Horticulture,
Crop Insurance, and Miscellaneous.
Projected funding for the farm
bill is in the billions with nutrition taking the largest piece of
the pie at 81 percent. The nutrition title covers food subsidy
programs; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) formerly
referred to as Food Stamps as well as several other small nutrition
programs for lower income families. Because of the large portion
appropriated for SNAP, it is the hottest topic for debate on the
House and Senate floors. The largest point of contention when it
comes to SNAP benefits seems to be work requirements. Currently,
there are only about thirteen percent of SNAP recipients that have
work requirements, and many Republicans would like to see that
number increase. Participants that can work and don’t have a
dependent are required to work 80 hours a month. According to
farmdoc Daily, research has found little to no evidence that work
requirements achieve their intended goal of promoting employment and
self-sufficiency. At present, unemployment rates are at an all-time
low while SNAP participation remains elevated. Questions arise given
low unemployment and high poverty levels. Some argue that tightening
work restrictions will reduce the amount of SNAP funding while
others say that SNAP participation does not seem to impact
employment and does not make recipients not want to work.
The last two farm bills have
all but been derailed over this topic and the 2023 farm bill is
expected to be no different. The FRA (Fiscal Responsibility Act)
arose during debt ceiling negotiations. The FRA gave way to a few
points of key reform to SNAP: the age of able-bodied adults without
dependents rose from 18-49 to 18-54 and provided new exceptions for
the homeless, veterans, and youth aging out of foster care; the FRA
reduced the exemptions to the able bodied American work requirement
to 8% from 12% in the 2018 farm bill. The FRA also terminated the
rights of the states to carryover these exemptions, ensuring that
each state meet federal able bodied American work requirements.
Chairman GT Thompson and the
House Agriculture Committee are crafting a 2023 farm bill with six
key components: Strengthening the farm safety net, streamlining the
government, ensuring fiscal responsibility, creating opportunities
that restore accountability and promote health, revitalizing rural
America, and conserving our farms and forests. More than 200 members
of Congress have never voted on a farm bill. Chairman Thompson has
spent countless hours touring America to hear from producers and
consumers alike gathering information for the bill. The farm bill
will focus on revitalizing rural America. This year Republicans have
the opportunity to produce a bill that invests in the future of
agriculture.
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According to Chairman Thompson
their top priority is to produce a bill written by farmers, for
farmers. GOP held districts contain 92 percent of all planted acres
in the US. No piece of legislature has a better return on investment
than the farm bill. The agriculture sector provides more than 46
million jobs, $2.6 trillion in wages, $947 billion in tax revenue,
$202 billion in exports, and $8.6 trillion in economic activity for
two-tenths of one percent of federal spending.
Though not in the
committee’s direct jurisdiction, Chairman Thompson and Ranking
Committee Member David Scott formed the bipartisan Agricultural
Labor Working Group to target workforce issues affecting our
producers. American farmers increasingly are turning to overseas
workers to fill the gap caused by a lack of reliable labor in the
US. This committee, chaired by Rep. Rick Crawford of AR and Rep. Don
Davis of NC, is expected to produce a final report by the end of the
year that will provide a variety of potential solutions to the labor
problem.
We are all aware that our
farmers have faced challenges and the hope for the 2023 farm bill is
that Congress will be willing to make difficult, but necessary
financial and policy decisions that put our producers first. We need
a farm bill that gives American taxpayers and producers alike
accountability for as well as transparency into the vital
agricultural programs that keep America sustainable.
Resources:
2023_august_recess_packet_combined.pdf (house.gov)
The
2023 Farm Bill: Legislative Updates for Farmers | AgAmerica
2023-Farm-Bill-Platform.pdf (sustainableagriculture.net)
Farm Bill 2023: Questions About the Focus on SNAP Work Requirements
- farmdoc daily (illinois.edu)
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