House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson said Thursday that he now hopes to move a new farm bill by March. Meanwhile, his staff has started briefing farm organizations and other groups this week on possible sources of funding that face resistance from Democrats.
“When I look at the calendar in the first quarter, the first month we get to that has the contiguous weeks that we need is March,” Thompson told reporters Thursday.
Republican aides are pitching three possible sources:
• Reallocating some of the Inflation Reduction Act’s conservation funding. Under budget rules, about $14.4 billion could be put into the farm bill and used to create a permanent baseline for conservation programs while directing as much as $6 billion into shoring up other areas of the legislation;
• Capping or eliminating USDA’s Section 5 authority under the Commodity Credit Corporation, saving $8 billion over 10 years;
• Restricting the way the USDA conducts future updates of the Thrifty Food Plan, the economic model for the cost of eating that’s used to set Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. The TFP restrictions would save an estimated $30 billion over 10 years.
Thompson said the committee is facing funding requests totaling $70 billion to $100 billion above what is available in the current baseline for the farm bill.
According to sources familiar with the GOP proposals, those needs include as much as $30 billion to $50 billion to address requests from farm groups for modifications to commodity programs, including increasing the reference prices in the Price Loss Coverage.
Proposals to expand crop insurance or increase premium subsidies would cost at least $1 billion to $2 billion. The committee is looking specifically at increasing premium subsidies for beginning farmers and for area-based insurance policies, such as the Supplemental Coverage Option, that provide higher levels of revenue coverage.
Another $2 billion has been requested for export promotion programs.
There also are pending proposals to expand SNAP eligibility to college students and former drug offenders and a third proposal to ensure that SNAP beneficiaries don’t lose their benefits when they take advantage of employment and training programs.
Thompson has been meeting with small groups of Democrats to outline the possible funding sources, but there is little evidence that he has made much headway.
The committee’s top Democrat, David Scott, D-Ga., issued a statement Thursday after the House wrapped up its work for the year blasting House Republicans for the lack of action so far on a new farm bill, despite new House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to move the legislation in December.