The House is expecting to vote on Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s proposal to pass a nutrition title-only farm bill that would cut the SNAP (food stamp) program by approximately $40 billion over the coming decade and provide incentives for states to reduce the food stamp rolls among working age adults. The House GOP caucus is […]
Farm Bill
Groups Urge Ag Leaders to Reject Restrictive House Language Regarding Fair Markets and Contracts
Today, NSAC joined over 140 farm, consumer, faith, and rural organizations in a letter urging House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders to reject a provision in the House-passed farm bill that severely restricts the USDA’s ability to address anti-competitive and unfair business practices in the livestock and poultry sectors. A version of this letter was […]
Land Stewardship Project Report Assesses Conservation Stewardship Program in Minnesota
The Land Stewardship Project just released a comprehensive report addressing the Conservation Stewardship Program in Minnesota. The report analyzes participation in the program county-by-county and makes recommendations to improve the program at the state and national level. The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is a comprehensive working-lands program that provides financial and technical assistance to farmers […]
What’s on Deck this Fall for Farm Bill and Appropriations
Congress will be back in Washington next week and first up will be debates in both houses on Syria. The debate and action on Syria will take at least a week, and could spill over into a second week if a Senate filibuster takes place. The time debating foreign war policy will delay action on […]
Progress on Enforcing Farm Payment Income Limits, But More Reform Needed
In light of record high farm incomes, increased scrutiny of federal spending, and the ongoing farm bill reauthorization process, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report last week on the USDA process for assessing whether a farmer is eligible, based on their adjusted gross income (AGI) level, to receive commodity or conservation program payments. […]
Only Sixteen States Eligible for Organic Cost Share Funding
The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released a notice of funds availability for the Agricultural Management Assistance (AMA) Organic Certification Cost-Share Program earlier this week in the Federal Register. The notice invites 16 states (Northeastern states plus Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming) to submit a grant application to AMS for organic certification cost-share […]
House SNAP Cuts Will Eliminate Assistance for Millions, New Report Finds
Editor’s Note: We are sharing with our readers the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) new analysis of the forthcoming House food stamp bill, and then conclude with some of our own thoughts about how it fits into the broader farm bill debate. New Analysis of the Proposed SNAP Bill The Center on Budget […]
Moving toward the Brink as They Head out of Town
“This is b___s___” Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) expressing anger over having his transportation and housing appropriations bill pulled from the House floor by the GOP leadership. “With this action, the House has declined to proceed on the implementation of the very budget it adopted three months ago. Thus, I believe that the House has made […]
Conservation, Rural Development, and Fair Markets & Contracts – Groups Weigh In on Farm Bill
This week NSAC signed onto letters to Congress concerning conservation, rural development, and fair competition provisions of the House and Senate farm bills, ahead of what could still possibly be an August replete with Agriculture Committee staff meetings to begin to work out the details of a final farm bill. Conservation NSAC was one of […]
Farm Bill and Agriculture Appropriations – Clear as Mud
The congressional month-long August recess is just a week away. In more normal times, as those types of deadlines loom, deals get done on Capitol Hill. Not so this year. The path forward on a new five-year farm bill and on the set of appropriations bills to fund the government for the coming fiscal year […]
Conservation Reserve Program Sign-Up Results
On Monday, July 22, USDA announced it is awarding new Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts for 1.7 million acres starting on October 1. There are currently 26.9 million acres enrolled in the program, but on October 1, 3.3 million acres are scheduled to leave the reserve. Hence with today’s additions, it brings the total to […]
Groups Urge Full and Fair Farm Bill NOW
Today, over 240 groups issued a joint statement urging Congressional leaders to pass a full and fair Farm Bill without delay, and to quickly move to conference the House-passed and Senate-passed versions of the Farm Bill. NSAC issued the following statement along with the release of this letter: “Today 243 food and farm organizations from […]
Farm Bill – To Conference or Not to Conference Part II
On Tuesday, July 16, the House sent its farm-only farm bill to the Senate, enabling the Senate to take the House bill, strip out the House language, insert the Senate language (including the nutrition title), and request a conference committee to work out the differences. That Senate action is expected today. Also on Tuesday, House […]
Farm Bill – To Conference or Not to Conference?
With the House having passed a partial farm bill last week, the issue of the moment is whether or not this action signals the start of a conference committee between the House and Senate to craft a final bill. Toward that end, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) today called for that formal conference […]
House Passes Partial Farm Bill on Second Try
The House of Representatives today passed a farm bill, minus the nutrition title, by a vote of 216-208. No Democrats voted for the bill, while just 12 Republicans voted against it. Six Republicans and five Democrats were not present to vote. The bill approved today contained all the titles of the farm bill other than […]
NSAC to House – Don’t Split the Farm Bill
With the noise growing within a wing of the House Republican Caucus to split the farm bill into two separate bills – one for nutrition including the food stamp or SNAP program, and one for everything else – NSAC wrote to House leaders today urging them to instead adopt a bipartisan consensus approach. After the […]
Is There a Path Forward on the Farm Bill?
This week, we are doing a three-part blog series on the House’s failure to pass a farm bill last week. The first post covered the topic of farm program reform, the second post analyzes why the bill failed, and this third discusses options for moving the bill forward. In the week since the U.S. House […]
Why Did the Farm Bill Fail in the House?
This week, we are doing a three-part blog series on the House’s failure to pass a farm bill last week. The first post covered the topic of farm program reform, this second post analyzes why the bill failed, and the third will discuss options for moving the bill forward. Last week, the House of Representatives […]
Silver Lining for Reform in Farm Bill Failure
This week, we are doing a three-part blog series on the House’s failure to pass a farm bill last week. This first post covers the topic of farm program reform, the second post will be an analysis of why the bill failed, and the third will discuss options for moving the bill forward. Not long […]
Farm Bill Fails in the House
This afternoon, the House of Representatives failed to pass a farm bill by a vote of 195-234. After a lengthy debate yesterday and this morning on farm bill amendments, House GOP leadership and the leaders of the House Agriculture Committee were not able to secure enough votes to pass the bill. During this morning’s debate, […]
House Farm Bill Moving Toward Conclusion
On Wednesday, June 19, the House of Representatives passed the rule governing debate on the farm bill and began debate on scores of amendments. The rule governing the debate and specifying which amendments would and would not be debated and voted on, was approved by a primarily party line vote of 239-177, with 15 Democrats […]
House Rules Committee Kills Key Farm Bill Amendments
Very early on the morning of Wednesday, June 19, the House Rules Committee decided upon which amendments members of the House of Representatives will vote on during House considering of the 2013 Farm Bill today, tomorrow, and perhaps into next week. The final list includes 103 amendments, but excludes several of the most important amendments […]
Senate Passes 2013 Farm Bill, Attention Turns to the House
On Monday evening, June 10, the Senate passed its version of the 2013 Farm Bill by a vote of 66-27. The bill passed with strong bipartisan support, and only two Democrats (both of the Senators from Rhode Island) voted with 25 Republicans in opposition to the bill. Due in part to bad weather in the […]
Senate Sets Path to Pass 2013 Farm Bill
On Thursday, June 6, the Senate voted 75-22 to limit debate on its version of the 2013 Farm Bill, setting up a final vote on passage of the bill for Monday evening. Fifty-three Democrats and 22 Republicans voted to limit debate — or, to invoke “cloture” — and 22 Republicans voted against. The vote to […]