Well,
it is early in a farm-bill year and the administration is offering an outline
for reauthorization, Bloomberg says. And, to no one’s surprise, the
administration is proposing to “push some food-stamp recipients back to work,”
Bloomberg says.
It is
reporting that a four-page document released by the USDA on Wednesday calls for
supporting “work as the pathway to self-sufficiency, well-being and economic
mobility for individuals and families” on food stamps. The administration
didn’t specify how it would change the law or whether it wants to cut funds for
the program.
The
department said it wants to discourage “subsidies that make farmers dependent
on the government.” And, it also called for cutting regulations, as well as
improved monitoring of how other countries may impede agriculture exports. The
outline was released Tuesday in advance of a trip by Agriculture Secretary
Sonny Purdue to Pennsylvania, where he’ll discuss the proposals.
The
bill, whose cost has topped $100 billion in previous years, re-authorizes
programs overseen by USDA, including payments to growers of corn and soybeans
and funds to prevent forest fires, among many other things. The current law
ends Sept. 30, after which current programs begin to phase out.
The
outline--described by the administration as a statement of principles--is
intended to guide legislation being considered in Congress, Perdue said. He
also noted that the White House is “ready” to get more deeply involved if
lawmakers veer far from the administration’s approach.
"You
will see more of an evolution than a revolution" in this year’s law,
Perdue said. "There are some things that we can do and will propose to do
in the farm bill that can be helpful."
Recommendations
for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are being watched especially
closely because the expensive bill requires broad support for passage, and
because a partisan dispute over that issue nearly derailed the previous farm
law that ultimately passed in 2014. Nutrition initiatives, including SNAP, account
for most of the bill’s costs.
"The
only ugly issue on the scene is the food fight between the nutrition people and
the crop-agriculture people," said Harwood Schaffer, an agricultural
economist at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. "If we don’t have
to steal from nutrition to make the commodity programs work, we may be able to
avoid any major problems."
Senate
Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said that while some food
stamp rules may be tightened, changes to the program aren’t likely to be
dramatic, given a need to attract Democratic votes in the Senate. Perdue also
has said the administration wouldn’t be pushing for radical change to the
program.
Many
people who receive food stamps already work, Bloomberg notes. In 2015, USDA found
that 57% of working-age adults in the program either had a job or were looking
for one; another 22% did not work because of a disability.
Farm-bill
leadership has traditionally fallen to Congress, with the USDA in an advisory
role, though different administrations have tried different approaches. George
W. Bush’s administration advanced a very detailed policy statement in 2002
which was largely ignored. Bush vetoed Congress’s final plan in 2008, but that
veto was overridden.
President
Barack Obama’s administration played little role in drafting the 2014 law.
Trump recently told the American Farm Bureau Federation that he will work with
Congress "to pass the farm bill on time so that it delivers for all of
you."
Bloomberg
added a note of caution concerning the $1.5 trillion tax cut Congress passed
last month which may make approval of farm legislation more difficult. In
addition, cotton and dairy farmers “likely will seek larger subsidies,”
Bloomberg says, and may argue there’s more money that could be made available
to them as spending on food stamps falls because of an improving economy. In
2017, spending on food stamps fell 15%, to $68 billion, from its peak four
years earlier.
Roberts
and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway, R-Texas, have both
said they’d like a bill in their chambers early this year. Neither has revealed
a plan.
So, we
will see. Farm bills typically are costly and nowadays involve economic and
social issues far beyond agriculture. The result has increasingly been bitter,
prolonged national debates and this year is unlikely to be an exception. It
will, of course, be yet another debate producers should watch closely as it
emerges, Washington Insider believes.