House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) today unveiled a new five-year farm bill that he said would reduce spending by $39.7 billion over the next decade compared to existing legislation. Overall, the bill, crafted in consultation with Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-MN), is very similar to the bill the committee approved last year and sent to the House floor.
Overall, Chairman Lucas said, the House measure calls for reductions on the level that the Obama administration recommended in its fiscal 2014 budget proposal, but the savings will come from “all sections of the farm bill” rather than just from direct payments, crop insurance subsidies, and conservation programs. Food stamps and other nutrition programs would be reduced by $20.4 billion, compared to $16 billion in last year’s bill. Lucas’s bill finds $13.8 billion in savings from farm programs and another $6.9 billion in cuts from environmental programs.
“So much of what I’ve tried to do, and what the committee has tried to do,” Lucas said, “is just simply in the economic environment we’re in, how do you turn down spending in a big enough way to demonstrate to the majority of this body that you’re doing your part to address the $16 trillion national debt and at the same time still provide a safety net for both the production of food and the consumption?”
Chairman Lucas said House Republican leaders have committed to hold a floor debate on the bill in June.
Senate Agriculture Chairwomen Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) released a draft of the Senate farm bill, entitled the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act. The bill will yield a total of $23 billion in cuts to agriculture programs, including cuts made because of the sequester and is over double the amount the bipartisan “Gang of Six” recommended last year. This year’s bill is similar to the bill that passed last year and had wide bipartisan support–the bill passed on the Senate floor on a 64 -35 vote. The current farm bill expires September 30, 2013. A summary of the Senate farm bill is here.
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has announced that he would like to have a vote on the farm bill before Memorial Day recess, which starts May 24.
