Congress might be better off leaving an already overdue five-year farm bill unfinished in 2024, Arkansas Republican Sen. John Boozman said Tuesday.
At a forum sponsored by POLITICO at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Boozman — the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee — said extending the 2018 farm bill for the second year in a row would be preferable to passing a bill without significant changes in policy.
“We simply have to reset the safety net,” Boozman said in a discussion with House Agriculture Chair Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-Pa.), citing the effects of inflation and other economic stresses in farm country since the 2018 legislation.
Farmers, Boozman said, “realize that we need substantial changes or we’re better off where we are.”
Boozman said he hasn’t given up on completing a farm bill this year and that he and other lawmakers are “going to work really hard” to do so.
But neither Boozman nor Thompson signaled significant progress toward moving a farm bill in both chambers. Senate Agriculture Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has released a framework but not a bill, and Republican leaders in the House haven’t indicated when it might take up the bill the Agriculture Committee passed in May. Farm bill programs are operating on a one-year extension that expires at the end of September.
At a minimum, Thompson said, the House farm bill will wait until annual appropriations bills are finished — in September at the earliest.
Hanging in the balance is about $15 billion for conservation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, already provided in the Inflation Reduction Act. Democrats want to move that money, with the climate-related focus, into the farm bill; Republicans want to remove that focus and wrap the money into conservation more broadly.
Thompson has been stalled, too, in a disagreement with the Congressional Budget Office on how much savings the bill can generate in some areas to cover other policy changes. The gap is tens of billions of dollars over the 10-year budget window.
For instance, Thompson is seeking significant increases in the target prices that trigger commodity payments to farmers, which could ease the effects of inflation since the 2018 farm bill. That proposal relies on savings elsewhere in the bill.
Depending on the results of November’s elections, Republicans could hold majorities in both chambers and retake the White House. But given the regional — rather than partisan — nature of farm bill politics, an electoral sweep might not make a farm bill any easier to pass next year, Boozman said.
If Republican retake the Senate majority, Boozman would be in line to chair the committee. Stabenow is retiring, with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar potentially in line for the top Democratic spot.
An incoming Trump administration’s approach to farm programs remains a potential wild card, especially if officials resist expansion of crop insurance subsidies or call for reductions in conservation programs. Both were features of the past Trump administration’s budget requests.
Thompson said he’d want to see a new secretary of Agriculture work more closely with Congress, reflecting his complaints that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack pursues programs on climate change and other issues unilaterally.
“I’d like to see a USDA that’s a collaborative partner,” Thompson said. With Vilsack, he said, “it’s always an end-around.”