The House Agriculture Committee, chaired by Rep. GT Thompson (R-PA), this week released a summary of its 2024 Farm Bill. Meanwhile, the Senate Agriculture Committee, led by retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), also released a summary of its Farm Bill proposal.
Neither committee released the full text of their proposals, but just provided detailed summaries.
The House Agriculture Committee’s proposal included rerouting funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to programs within the bill’s conservation title. Those funds would then be used to increase the baseline funding for various conservation programs.
The proposal also increased funding for commodity supports in Title I, including for row crops, sugar, and dairy producers.
It would also include a significant increase in funding for USDA’s trade promotion programs, including the Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) program.
A full summary of the House proposal can be found here. Chairman Thompson also announced that the committee will hold a markup of the bill on May 23.
Meanwhile, the Senate proposal, known as the “Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act,” includes increased funding for USDA’s nutrition programs and conservation title. The bill also “incorporates more than 100 bipartisan bills and the work of Senators on and off the [Senate Agriculture] Committee.”
The proposal also includes a section that would establish an Office of the Special Investigator for Competition Matters and “requires the Special Investigator to use all available tools to investigate and prosecute violations of the Packers and Stockyards Act, maintain staff attorneys and other appropriate professionals, and coordinate with USDA’s Office of the General Counsel and the Packers and Stockyards Division of the Agricultural Marketing Service.”
A full summary of the Senate proposal can be found here. A section-by-section summary can be found here. Chair Stabenow has not announced a date for the committee to markup the bill.