Frankfort, KY – It’s more or less official; a new farm bill will not go to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote before the existing bill expires on Sept. 30.
While no surprise, this comes much to the dismay of farmers and agriculture organizations across the country and despite numerous efforts by a host of supportive legislators and ag leaders to encourage a vote.
A rally organized by the Farm Bill Now Coalition was held at the Capitol before the Sept. 21 recess with farmers and ranchers calling for Congress to take action sooner rather than later.
American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman emceed the rally and said, “Perhaps never in the history of farm legislation have so many diverse farmer and rancher voices joined together for such a common call for action on a farm bill. All of us gathered here also share one resounding and common message, Congress, for our farm and ranch families, their communities and our nation: pass the farm bill, now.”
The Senate passed a bill last June in a rather speedy and somewhat bipartisan manner as did the House Agriculture Committee soon after. But that proved to be the end of the road for the bill at least until the November elections are over and a lame-duck Congress convenes.
Meanwhile, as the political ball is tossed back and forth, failure to pass a bill could have some negative effects if legislation is not realized by the first of the year.
Generally speaking a farm bill covers commodity programs on a crop/marketing-year basis which means crops grown in 2012 and marketed in 2013 would not be affected with the expiration of the bill. However, if legislation is not passed by the end of the year, the possibility of something known as “permanent law” taking affect becomes a real concern.
According to information from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), “Permanent law primarily refers to the Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1938 and the Agricultural Act of 1949. If no action is taken on a new farm bill by December 31, 2012, some permanent law policies for the farm commodity programs would resume.”
And those policies would resume under guidelines set more than 70 years ago in some instances. The dairy industry would be the first to feel the effects of the expiration. The CRS reports that, “beginning September 1, 2012, the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program is administered at reduced coverage levels. Specifically, the MILC feed cost adjuster is lowered from 45 percent of the difference between the target price and actual price to 34 percent of this difference. Additionally, the MILC volume cap is lowered from 2.985 million pounds to 2.4 million pounds per dairy farmer.”
Some other programs have already expired including livestock disaster assistance programs. The House did pass the Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of 2012 which was supposed to have helped with problems caused by this year’s drought. The Senate however did not pass that legislation.
The likelihood of permanent law happening is small but any possibility at all is too much for many in agriculture.
It should also be noted that this is not the first time Congress couldn’t pass a farm bill. Five extensions of the 2002 bill were passed before the 2008 statute was completed. In fact, the CRS noted that over the last 40 years only two farm bills (1973 and 1977) have been passed before the deadline.
Ironically, at the heart of most of the debate this year is the issue of the food stamp program. It is estimated that 80 percent of the cost of the bill goes toward the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The House wants deeper cuts than the Senate version allows. That proposal before the House would cause two to three million individuals across the nation to lose their food assistance entirely; an additional 500,000 households to have their SNAP benefits cut by an average of $90 per month; and nearly 300,000 children to lose free school meals, according to data provided by the Kentucky Association of Food Banks.
Mark Haney, president of Kentucky Farm Bureau said he believes the outcome will be an extension of the 2008 Farm Bill.
“Some people really want for that not to happen and American Farm Bureau is certainly one of those,” he said. “They have been involved in this Farm Bill Now approach with a great number of ag organizations across the country trying to put the emphasis on ‘get the farm bill, the quicker the better.’ There is obviously a good argument for that, but realistically I just don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Senate Ag Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) is another who does not support an extension. In fact she said during a teleconference held on Sept. 20 anything short of the full bill is something she is not interested in.
“Just to make it very clear, we are going to do everything possible to get this done in the lame-duck session. Right now, 16 million people that work in agriculture are being left hanging by the House leadership despite the work, on a bipartisan basis of the House Committee and the bipartisan work of the Senate,” she said. “I really am shocked that there has been no action this month before the Sept. 30 deadline but I am absolutely committed to doing everything humanly possible on behalf of our farmers and ranchers in rural America to complete the farm bill in November or December.”
There was talk of an extension before the election recess but House Republican leadership said there were not enough votes to get that accomplished. House Democrats unsuccessfully urged Speaker John Boehner to cancel the recess until Congress voted on key pending legislation, including the farm bill.