House Ag chairman blasts ‘one-sided’ farm bill coalition and ‘meddling Senate Democrat’

The farm bill coalition — the rural and urban alliance credited with carrying farm bills to enactment — “is a one-sided talking point,” said House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson on Tuesday in insisting on a $53 billion increase in farm subsidies and cuts in SNAP. Time is running out for passage of the new farm bill this year, and farm groups, silent for weeks, are now calling for prompt congressional action.

Election-year politics soon will freeze legislative progress in the already polarized House and Senate. The House was not expected to vote until after Labor Day on the farm bill that was approved by its Agriculture Committee before Memorial Day. The only hope may be passage of a House-Senate compromise bill after the Nov. 5 general elections.

“I will not apologize for advancing a bill that seeks to put the farm back in the farm bill,” said Thompson, who combines affability with red-meat rhetoric, at a committee hearing on agricultural finances. “The romanticized ‘farm bill coalition’ often talked about is a one-sided talking point.”

After describing Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow as “a meddling Senate Democrat,” Thompson said he was open to “an informal pre-conference negotiation with the Senate” on make-up of the farm bill. Stabenow aides said Thompson proposed huge increases in farm spending without paying for it and bill unduly favors Southern growers over farmers in the Midwest and Plains.

Stabenow has said she will not accept cuts in SNAP or removal of “guardrails” on climate funding; both are goals of House and Senate Republicans. She has proposed increases of at least 5% in so-called reference prices for major crops. The House bill and a Senate Republican “framework” call for an average 15% increase.

“A farm bill is not passed through slogans and posturing,” said Stabenow’s office. “The path to passing a bipartisan farm bill has always been holding together the broad farm and food coalition that has formed the foundation of every successful bill for decades.”

At the House hearing, Thompson said his committee-approved farm bill “represents the largest permanent investment in the farm safety net, conservation, trade promotion, specialty crops, research, and livestock biosecurity in more than two decades.”

Republicans would foolishly restrict USDA access to emergency funds at the same time their nominee for the White House, former president Donald Trump, might start a new trade war, said Georgia Rep. David Scott, the senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. The Trump administration tapped the USDA fund for $23 billion in aid to farmers during the Sino-U.S. trade war.

“Bottom line, if we want to get a farm bill done this year, as these witnesses want, we have to find a different way to pay for it without locking away this important tool for five years,” said Scott.

“My door remains open to negotiation from any partner willing to come to the table with a serious proposal, not more red lines,” said Thompson. Scott said he was willing to work on bipartisan improvements to the farm bill, “But you must be open to change.”

Farm Belt witnesses described extreme financial stress from high production costs and multi-year decline in commodity prices. Minnesota crop and dairy farmer Dana Allen-Tully said a farm bailout package may be needed because farmers cannot make a profit at current market prices for corn and soybeans. North Carolina cotton farmer David Dunlow said “another straight extension of the current farm bill is unacceptable….many farmers like me and others across the country will not be farming next year without some sort of assistance.”

“Bankers believe they may be ‘looking over a cliff’ in regard to the agricultural economy without changes to current government policy,” said Tony Hotchkiss, of the American Bankers Association. “This includes adjustments to reference prices and ensuring that crop insurance covers loss appropriately for producers.”

USDA forecasts of net farm income, an indicator of profitability, are more sanguine. Net income was a record $185.5 billion in 2022 and is forecast at $116.1 billion this year, a steep decline but still the fourth-highest net income on record and 15% above its 10-year average. The debt-to-asset ratio would rise slightly this year to 12.8%, a moderate level. The USDA was scheduled to update its forecast on Sept. 5.

To watch a video of the hearing or to read written testimony by witnesses, click here.