CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Corrected Sept. 19, 2012 – 11:13 a.m.
Farm Law Likely to Expire This Month
By Philip Brasher, CQ Staff
The law currently governing the nation’s farm and food aid policy now seems destined to expire at the end of this month, with congressional leaders opting to delay a fight over how to reauthorize those programs until after the elections.
House leaders are unlikely to schedule a vote this week on legislation to extend the 2008 farm law, House Agriculture spokeswoman Tamara Hinton said Tuesday.
“At this point, we don’t expect any additional items to be added to the House schedule for the week,” Hinton said.
Barring last-minute developments, this means the 2008 law (PL 110-246) will expire Sept. 30, because the House goes into recess at the end of this week and will stay out until after the Nov. 6 elections. This would be the second time since 1973 — considered the starting point for the modern era of farm policy — that a farm bill will have expired. The last time was in 2007, when the 2002 law (PL 107-171)was allowed to expire for three months.
Major activities authorized in the farm bill, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), would continue. Legislation (
However, international food aid, agricultural trade and rural development programs would expire, as would the Milk Income Loss Contract program that provides dairy-price support.
Congress is expected to take some action in the post-election session in order to keep a 1940s farm law from taking effect and significantly raising crop and dairy subsidies. An extension or a new farm bill is needed by Dec. 31 to prevent that from happening.
A Push for Lame-Duck Action
The threat of the 1940s law might be the best leverage farm groups have to prod the House into action.
Mary Kay Thatcher, a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, said that a coalition of farm, conservation and nutrition groups will continue to press for a longer-term farm bill in the lame-duck session.
“It just means we have to keep the pressure on members of Congress over the next couple of months so when they come back for the lame-duck session they’re ready to pass a five-year farm bill,” Thatcher said.
The Farm Bureau wants a full bill rather than an extension, which would push consideration of the long-term policy into a new Congress with the potential for a smaller pool of money for agriculture and related programs.
The Senate passed a five-year farm bill (
Farm Law Likely to Expire This Month
House Republican leaders have kept the bill off the floor because of disagreements among GOP members over the level of proposed reductions to SNAP. The bill proposes $16 billion in cuts over 10 years, which is far more than the $4.5 billion cut in the Senate bill for the same period of time. GOP conservatives want much deeper reductions. Most House Democrats do not support any cuts to the program and would be unlikely to provide GOP leaders the votes they need to offset lost Republican votes.
So far, agriculture groups have not generated a sufficient groundswell from farmers to convince House leaders that it is worth their while to put the bill up for a vote.
While SNAP has drawn the most attention, there are regional fights over the different approaches that the Senate and House take on farm programs. Both chambers’ bills would put an end to the controversial direct payments that are paid annually based on the past production history of crop land, and that are paid regardless of whether market conditions have been good or bad.
The Senate measure, however, focuses on shifting money into revenue protection and crop insurance plans that favor corn and soybean producers in the Midwest. Southern rice producers have been the most vocal about what they consider to be a regional bias in the Senate bill.
The House bill would offer revenue protection options but incorporates target prices that Southern producers say are more fair financially.
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The Indiana Republican acknowledged that that appears unlikely, but he cautioned that sessions held after an election can be difficult to navigate.
“It’s entirely [determined by] the mood of the members after the election, whether they are upbeat, disappointed, tired or want to go home,” Lugar said.
A version of this story appeared in CQ Roll Call Executive Briefing: Agriculture & Food.
First posted Sept. 18, 2012 11:15 p.m.
Correction
Corrects the number of times since 1973 that farm law has been allowed to expire.