Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., on Monday released the text of a farm bill that was largely similar to a summary she released earlier in the year but included a financing mechanism that she said would increase spending on several programs.

Stabenow said her bill would achieve $39 billion in savings to be directed toward commodity subsidies and other programs by restricting for five years the agriculture secretary’s use of the Commodity Credit Corporation, USDA’s $30 billion per year line of credit at the Treasury. Stabenow had earlier opposed restrictions on the CCC, which the Trump administration used to make payments to farmers when China reduced farm imports from the United States and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack used to fund his climate-smart commodities program. Vilsack has opposed any restrictions on the CCC.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., proposed using the CCC to come up with savings to increase spending on the commodity title, but the Congressional Budget Office said Thompson’s proposal would not provide nearly enough savings to come up with the budget authority that Thompson needed to achieve his goals of raising reference prices so that farmers would get more aid. Thompson said he hoped the House Budget Committee would override the CBO, but the Budget Committee did not take action. Democrats also opposed the move to override the CBO.

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Stabenow said the savings would be achieved by using “directed scoring” under which Congress could override the Congressional Budget Office.

Stabenow said she agreed to the CCC restriction in September in an attempt to reach bipartisan agreement but that each time she made a proposal Republicans brought up new “red lines” to which she would not agree. Stabenow said that Republicans were mainly interested in providing more benefits to Southern rice, cotton and peanut producers. She also said Republicans were willing to provide aid to specialty crop producers (fruits, vegetables and tree nuts) only by using budget authority from cutting nutrition programs.

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REACTION TO THE PROPOSAL

In reaction to Stabenow’s bill release, Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee and presumed incoming chairman, said on X: “An 11th hour partisan proposal released 415 days after the expiration of the current farm bill is insulting. America’s farmers deserve better.”

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said, “This morning, Chairwoman Stabenow released her farm bill text — a 1,400-page document that no Republican committee member has reviewed or had the opportunity to collaborate on. This is not a sincere or transparent effort to address the urgent needs of rural America. Instead, it is a last-minute power play in the final hours — manipulating her majority power in the Senate Ag Committee before losing the gavel. Today’s move shows that Senate Democrats have walked away from meaningful bipartisan negotiations that are a tradition in this committee and have opted to play politics with the livelihoods of hard-working farmers and ranchers at a time when rural America needs real solutions. 

“Thoughtful negotiation and bipartisan cooperation are essential to delivering a farmers-first farm bill that Kansans deserve. Despite Stabenow’s attempt to upend the process, as a member of the Senate Ag Committee representing Kansas agriculture, I remain committed to reviewing this bill and advocating for the needs of our farmers and ranchers. With farmers facing record decreases in net farm income, we must put FARM back in the farm bill by increasing crop insurance coverage and reference prices for the American farmer,” Marshall added.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., also a member of the committee, said, “Farmers, foresters, and producers struggled to survive in Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s economy. Many of our family farmers had to make the difficult decision to put their combines and tractors up for good because of their inability to make ends meet. The farm bill proposal that Senate Democrats released today does not adequately address the needs that farmers, foresters, and producers have, including a mere 5% increase in reference prices for commodity programs. Food security is national security, and we cannot afford to lose any more farmers. America’s farmers work hard to feed, fuel and clothe our nation. They deserve to be a priority — not an afterthought. We will make our hardworking producers a priority next Congress when Republicans will control both the House and Senate.”

Neither Thompson nor David Scott, D-Ga., ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee, released a statement Monday on Stabenow’s proposal. “I think the crickets from the farm/ag community and around the Hill speak for itself,” one House Republican aide said.

FARM GROUP REACT

Rob Larew, president of the Democratic-leaning National Farmers Union, said, “Our priority for family farmers and ranchers remains steadfast: Congress must pass a strong, comprehensive five-year farm bill before year’s end. A farm bill provides the certainty and stability farmers need, including a strengthened safety net, disaster assistance, robust investments in conservation and measures to help farmers compete more effectively. While significant work has been done by the House and Senate Agriculture committees, leaders at the highest levels in both chambers must now make passing a strong, comprehensive five-year farm bill their top priority before the year ends.”

Zippy Duvall, president of the Republican-leaning American Farm Bureau Federation, said, “We’re reviewing Chairwoman Stabenow’s newly released 1,300 pages of farm bill text. It’s unfortunate that only a few legislative working days remain for Congress to act, but Farm Bureau remains committed to working with elected officials on both sides of the aisle to achieve federal policy that improves the outlook for farmers and ranchers. Our members across the nation have been clear in calling for a new farm bill in 2024 that helps farmers hold on after farm income dropped 30% in two years. The hardworking women and men who grow the food, fiber and renewable fuel for our nation cannot afford to wait for good federal policy that helps them manage the day-to-day risks inherent in agriculture.”

Center for Science in the Public Interest Vice President of Programs Anupama Joshi said, “Sen. Stabenow’s proposed farm bill protects and expands access to SNAP benefits, increases purchasing power for fruits and vegetables, and improves the healthfulness of the retail food environment.

“Taking food away from families by cutting SNAP, as House and Senate Republicans proposed to do in their draft bills, is never the right answer. Nor should we break climate-smart programs or attack the Dietary Guidelines for Americans or school meals, as the GOP has also proposed.

“Sen. Stabenow’s bill should be included in a final bipartisan package that benefits farmers and consumers, and advances food and nutrition security for everyone in the U.S.,” Joshi said.

Karen Perry Stillerman, deputy director of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said on Bluesky that Stabenow’s bill “incorporates the historic conservation funding investments from the Inflation Reduction Act into the farm bill and, critically, retains their focus on responding to climate change; ensures that the USDA can regularly update its Thrifty Food Plan, so food assistance benefits can be based on the latest science and dietary guidelines; advances recommendations from the USDA Equity Commission to address longstanding discrimination in ag; values workers across our food system by supporting them during times of disaster and giving them a seat at the USDA decision-making table.”

Crystal FitzSimons, interim president of the Food Research & Action Center, said, “FRAC is pleased the proposed legislation aligns with many of the anti-hunger community’s SNAP priorities for the farm bill, and we commend Chairwoman Stabenow for continuing her unwavering support to safeguard the much-needed Thrifty Food Plan future benefit adjustment.”

Jason Gromley, senior director for Share Our Strength and its No Kid Hungry campaign, said, “The proposed farm bill introduced by Sen. Stabenow serves as a model for how to protect the value of SNAP benefits and further strengthen the program. SNAP is one of our most powerful tools to fight hunger, and it’s used by over 40 million Americans to buy groceries. Congress has already delayed passing this farm bill for over a year, and now is the time for lawmakers to quickly find a path forward and provide certainty and security for kids, families and farmers.”

Lori Stevermer, president of the National Pork Producers Council, said, “Though America’s pork producers appreciate Chairwoman Stabenow’s efforts to publish farm bill text, this is simply not a viable bill, as it fails to provide a solution to California Prop. 12. Pork producers have continually spoken up about the negative impacts of this issue, and it is a shame these conversations were disregarded.”

Stevermer noted that both the Republican-written House Agriculture Committee-passed bill and the Senate Republican framework Boozman released included NPPC’s priorities, but she also said, “NPPC urges both chambers of Congress to swiftly consider and pass a farm bill this year that includes a fix to California Proposition 12, a state law that places arbitrary housing standards on the pork industry, creating uncertainty for pork producers as they look to continue their operations to the next generation.”

Nancy Perry, senior vice president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said, “We applaud the Senate Agriculture Committee for using this critical opportunity to provide meaningful reforms to systems that have long perpetuated cruelty to dogs in puppy mills and billions of animals raised for food on factory farms. We urge Congress to ensure that the final farm bill upholds state farm animal protection laws, institutes much-needed funding and transparency measures to support a more humane food system, improves enforcement of the laws that protect dogs and other animals in commercial breeding facilities, and additionally includes a ban on sending American horses to slaughter.”

Perry noted that the bill “calls for much needed oversight of industrial animal agriculture by requiring annual reporting on the depopulation of farm animals, ensuring more transparency from the corporations that have so far received hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded reimbursements.”