Thompson bill to increase farm subsidies by suspending CCC authority

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., has released a comprehensive farm bill text on Mary 17 that would increase Title I farm subsidies and crop insurance premium subsidies by between $50 billion and $53 billion over 10 years by suspending Section 5 of the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act, Republican committee aides told reporters at a briefing on Thursday.

The House Republican bill raises reference prices more, allows all producers to obtain new base acres and makes other, bigger improvements to the farm safety net than the Senate Democratic bill written by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., according to a chart released by the the House Agriculture Committee Republican staff.

The current cost of the Title I subsidy programs over 10 years is about $50 billion and crop insurance is about $100 billion.

Earlier, Republicans had proposed taking budget authority from the Supplemental Nutrition Program and the conservation programs in the Inflation Reduction Act to increase funding for the commodity programs and crop insurance, but Thompson has decided to bow to Democratic demands not to use those programs to increase farm subsidies, the aides said.

The budget savings that the Congressional Budget Office would calculate from the suspension of Section 5 of the CCC Charter Act is still under discussion, however.

The House Agriculture Committee staff has said that CBO’s forecasts of Section 5 outlays have been too low for several years and that by recalculating those forecasts the budget savings can be achieved, and the overall bill will be budget neutral. The House Budget Committee, which has authority over CBO, is helping the House Agriculture Committee Republicans make the case to CBO for a recalculation, a House Agriculture Committee Republican aide said.

The suspension of Section 5 would also mean that if former President Trump is re-elected and imposes tariffs on China that lead to retaliation against U.S. farm products, as happened in his administration, he would not be able to use the CCC to make payments to farmers, as he did.

A Republican committee aide said the use of the CCC authority to make payments to farmers to make up for the loss of sales to China was “a get-out-of-jail card for a trade war” and that changes to trade policy should “require a conversation with Congress.” The aide also said that the payments had not made up for the entire loss of sales to China.

DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said he opposes restrictions on the secretary’s use of the CCC authority, but that he is willing to work with Congress on ways to use the CCC to provide additional funding for farm programs.

The bill would also use $27 billion that CBO has said the U.S. might spend on increases in benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, for other uses under the jurisdiction of the House Agriculture Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture and Horticulture Subcommittee.

That budget savings comes from making the Thrifty Food Plan, a calculation of the amount needed to purchase food and beverages on a limited budget to be prepared at home, budget neutral. The Thrifty Food Plan is used to set SNAP benefits.

The 2018 farm bill allowed increases in SNAP benefits every five years due to a recalculation of the needs of people today under the Thrifty Food Plan. The Trump administration did not act on that authority, but the Biden administration reevaluated the Thrifty Food Plan in 2021 to reflect updated data on food prices, food composition, and consumption patterns, and current dietary guidance and increased benefits at what committee aides said is a cost of $256 billion over 10 years.

Of the expected $27 billion in SNAP budget savings, $12 billion to $16 billion would be spent on a variety of nutrition program initiatives.

They include overturning a law that prevents convicted felons from being eligible for SNAP benefits, coupons for senior citizens to make purchases at farmers markets, incentives for buying fruits and vegetables, tribal programs, the Healthy Food Financing Initiative and the Emergency Food Assistance Program, a federal food distribution program that supports food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, and other emergency feeding organizations serving low-income Americans.

Another provision would increase the nutrition block grant for Puerto Rico and encourage the territorial government to prepare for the day it could become eligible to participate in the SNAP program.

The rest of the $27 billion would go into other programs under the Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture and Horticulture Subcommittee jurisdiction, including trade promotion and specialty crops.

A Republican committee aide pointed out that Thompson’s bill would not cut current SNAP benefits or eligibility and that SNAP benefits would continue to be increased for inflation.

But a wide range of anti-hunger groups — including the Alliance to End Hunger, Feeding America, Food Research & Action Center, National WIC Association, Save the Children, and Share our Strength — have announced their opposition to the bill if it prevents the Agriculture Department from using reevaluations of the Thrifty Food Plan to raise benefits in the future.

A Republican committee aide told reporters that groups that oppose the bill are “hunger weirdos” that are “in the business of poverty” and “use poor people as props.”

The aide also said opponents of the changes are trying to portray Thompson “as a MAGA Republican,” and “you know he is not.”

The bill would also move the approximately $20 billion in conservation money in the Inflation Reduction Act into the farm bill, but without the guardrails that require that money be spent on conservation programs to address climate change.

Some farm and conservation groups have come out in opposition to removing the climate-related guardrails on the IRA conservation money, but a Republican committee aide said those groups do not represent farmers.

The bill also contains a provision to address California’s Prop 12, which requires that pork sold in the state has to have come from animals raised under certain conditions.

The provision would make it illegal for a state to impose a standard on livestock and dairy production outside its borders. It would not address laying hens at the request of the industry, an aide said.

Stabenow’s farm bill proposal does not address Prop 12.

The bill includes many other provisions. One would require that 50% of international food aid be in the form of domestically produced commodities. Another would require USDA in the farm labor survey to collect not just gross wages but base wages and to survey farm labor contractors.

Yet another provision tightens up on the reporting of purchases of farm land by foreigners, a recognition of the political imperative to address Chinese ownership of farmland in the United States.

Thompson has scheduled a committee markup on May 23, the day before the House leaves for a Memorial Day break.

Thompson and the GOP staff maintain there have been full-scale negotiations with House Democrats and staff for months, but Democrats have disputed those statements. Few, if any, Democrats are expected to support the House Republican bill, but Thompson has said his door is still open to negotiations.