Sep 27, 2018NPC: Farm Bill expiration looms
There are just a handful of days left before the end of September and the expiration of the current Farm Bill. Though the conference committee continues to meet to work out differences, it is increasingly likely that a successor 2018 Farm Bill may not be in place by Oct. 1, the National Potato Council said.
The NPC said the major points of contention are largely issues in the nutrition title of the two bills. In particular, the House takes a much different approach than the Senate to reforms in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“”I can’t bring back a bill that gets more Democratic votes than Republican votes. I’m not going to do that,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway said in an interview with Pro Farmer.
“In that situation, it becomes very difficult to see a new Farm Bill become law as the House version passed by one vote (213-211) with no Democratic support, while the bipartisan Senate version passed 86-11,” the NPC wrote in a release.
In terms of agricultural policy, it is still undecided whether the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) will be funded as intended at $80 million, or at the substantially lower figure of $55 million. Currently, over 30 percent of SCRI is dedicated to the citrus industry but their “carve-out” is due to expire at the end of September.
The Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance (the Alliance) is strongly urging Congress to hold to the agreement made during the 2014 Farm Bill negotiations to fully fund SCRI. In support of that position, the Alliance sent a joint letter to all members of the conference outlining their needs for an enhanced Specialty Crop Research Initiative along with maintaining funding for citrus disease research.
The Alliance is also pushing for full funding and program enhancements for export programs as the U.S. is dealing with substantial volatility in global trade. Also, a number of regulatory reform items remain undecided and are supported by the Alliance membership.
See the full list of Alliance conference priorities here.
