Farm Bill Facing a Tough Review
No longer on a fast track to development as part of Congress' failed deficit reduction foray, the 2012 farm bill now will move forward at a normal pace - but don't expect the process to be easy.
More than $10 billion of spending cuts already are planned for agricultural programs in 2013 as part of the automatic controls triggered by Congress' inaction on deficit reduction. That could compound the impact of spending reductions in the farmbill, which proponents hope to complete next year.
In addition, strong crop prices and deficit hawks are making it harder for farmers to defend the assistance they receive in the farm bill, and farm groups themselves are divided over what should be in the plan. With an election year looming, a vote on the farm bill could be delayed until 2013.
Funding cuts are practically a given, but just how deep they will be is what's causing the most concern.
"I'm worried about it," said Bobby Nedbalek, a cotton and grain sorghum grower in the Sinton area north of Corpus Christi. "We don't have as many friends in Washington anymore. There will be a significant reduction in the farm bill benefits. We just hope it's not in the areas that give us some kind of safety net."
The 2008 farm bill, which funds price supports and conservation programs for farmers, food distribution programs for the poor and a variety of other federal activities, will expire late next year. Agricultural leaders and other interests are intent on implementing new legislation that will extend its programming for five more years.
Without adequate funding for crop insurance and other revenue programs that make up the farm safety net, farm interests say crop production could fall.
David Gibson, executive director of the Texas Corn Producers Board, said the "safety net allows people to survive" by strengthening the balance sheets of farmers and improving their ability to get loans. If the farm bill gets slashed more than the $23 billion that already has been proposed by leaders of the House and Senate agriculture committees, the safety net may be weakened too much to keep production at current levels, Gibson said.
"Twenty-three billion (in cuts) is about as much as we can handle," said L. G. Raun, who chairs the Texas Rice Producers Legislative Group.
The House and Senate agricultural leadership recommended cuts in a proposal that could have resulted in quick passage of a farm bill if the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction had succeeded in its budget-cutting responsibilities last month. But it didn't, and now the review will start again.
While some would like to see the now-dead plan form the basis of the new farm bill proposal, others disagree. Hearings on the new bill likely will start early next year, but how far negotiators proceed is open to question given the uncertainty that surrounds financial issues and policy considerations.
"All bets are off now," said the Legislative Director of the Texas Farm Bureau Steve Pringle, who believes cuts will go deeper than the $23 billion in reductions over 10 years that were part of congressional leadership's proposal.
It's believed that the cuts recommended by the chairman, chairwoman and two ranking members of the agriculture committees would have eliminated a controversial farm subsidy - direct payments that are distributed regardless of farm income - and transferred some of those savings to crop insurance or other revenue programs for different commodity groups.
Raun, a rice producer in the El Campo area, plans to meet with representatives of other commodity groups so they can be unified in their effort to develop a more effective bill.
"It'll be a different safety net than we had in the past, so we'll need time to educate producers and lenders," Raun said. "We'd be better off to get it done sooner than later."
