It may take some creative budgeting to meet producer needs in a “no new money” farm bill. The issue is how to meet producer needs for the next five years with those needs much different than during the 2018 farm bill and with few, if any, new dollars.
“There’s a lot of different ways to move some money around, change some timelines that could free up some additional dollars, so we definitely think there’s a pathway forward,” says Andrew Walmsley, senior director of government affairs for the American Farm Bureau.
Walmsley says the budget squeeze, an already record farm bill baseline, and partisan fights over SNAP funding are making farm bill discussions more difficult.
“It’d be great to find some new dollars. Otherwise, looking at opportunities to stretch a dollar a little bit further. We’re certainly open to that – ways to improve programs, make them run more efficiently.”
SNAP would be an obvious target after USDA reported an almost 12 percent nationwide error rate for last year that prompted complaints from all four Ag panel leaders.
“But at the end of the day, we will need a meaningful farm bill that does invest in safety net programs, commodity title in particular, and that protects crop insurance, and we’re confident that Congress can find a way to do that.”
The existing farm bill expires on September 30th. Leading ag lawmakers acknowledged last month that they’ll likely need an extension.
