The historical bipartisan legislation includes a bevy of policies from crop insurance to food stamps.
Texas farmers tepidly celebrated last month after Congress barely managed to extend a package of laws meant to aid the nation’s agriculture industry and feed low-income Americans.
The clock is now ticking for federal lawmakers to pass a new, updated version of that legislation.
Farmers, ranchers, and agriculture organizations from all corners of Texas and across the U.S. pleaded with federal lawmakers for at least two years to update the constellation of policies — often called the farm bill — that provide crop insurance, food assistance and rural infrastructure programs.
Instead, the divided Congress gave itself nine more months to broker a deal that has long been considered “must-pass” legislation, with no clear path toward compromise.
Originally written in 1933, Congress last updated the farm bill in 2018. Congress is supposed to update the law every five years. However, lawmakers missed the first 2023 deadline and have extended it twice. This means farmers and ranchers are going into the year with provisions that are now six years old — policies that were passed before the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation, and devastating natural disasters.
The agriculture industry is one of the biggest in Texas, it adds $860.8 billion in economic activity and more than 4.5 million jobs for Texans. A longer delay for an updated bill could spell disaster for farmers and ranchers who are barely able to grow their crops now.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said it should be easier to pass the legislation after Republicans won total control of Congress and the White House. Miller advocated for it to get done by March.
“We’ll see if the Senate is willing to work with the House,” Miller said.
If previous years are any indication, that might be a challenge. A major point of contention has been a proposed $30 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food benefits to low-income families.
The Farm Bill is historically a bipartisan effort. With slim majorities in both chambers, Republican lawmakers will have to work with Democratic lawmakers to get enough votes to pass the legislation. This could be difficult in the tense political climate.
Mike Lavender, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said there’s been less of a desire to be bipartisan. And the sentiment is growing.
“This one party approach makes it challenging to pass policy, especially comprehensive policy like the Farm Bill,” Lavender said. “It’s a dynamic that’s going to be on display again this year, when Congress tries to revisit another Farm Bill.”
Miller said it’s not unusual for Congress to extend an old Farm Bill. The last Farm Bill to be enacted before it expired was the 2002 bill, according to Congressional reports. However, Miller said it’s still not acceptable because it leaves farmers and ranchers in limbo.
“As farmers, we have to live with it because there’s nothing we can do about it,” Miller said. “They could get to work on it right away and have one done by March. That’s what I’m encouraging.”
Miller says there isn’t anything catastrophically wrong with the bill in place. However, the uncertainty puts agricultural producers in a financial bind as banks are hesitant to give loans without knowing what the bill includes.
“All it does is kick the can down the road,” Miller said.
Darren Hudson, director of the International Center for Agricultural Competitiveness at Texas Tech University, said the biggest difference is the price of business. Farmers and ranchers are putting more money into growing commodities than they make back by selling their crops at the end of the season.
“They’re operating on razor-thin margins,” Hudson said. “Any sort of hiccup in their yield can put them in the negative in a hurry.”
Hudson said extending the bill does bring some relief. However, he thinks producers hoped a new bill would help the financial burden, either by updating reference prices or adjusting for production costs.
“Some mechanism to recognize where we are today versus where we were six years ago,” Hudson said.
The bill passed in December does include nearly $31 billion in natural disaster aid for producers who experienced natural disasters in 2023 and 2024, and an additional $10 billion for economic assistance for farmers and ranchers.
Both pools of money could come in handy for Texas. The state has been ravaged by prolonged drought, deadly wildfires and extreme flooding.
“It’s critical these components are put in to provide immediate relief to the agriculture industry,” said Kody Bessent with the Texas Agriculture Council.
Bessent, who is a cotton producer and CEO of Plains Cotton Growers, an agriculture group in the Texas South Plains, said he’s grateful Congress passed what it could.
“It’s what Congress can muster up to provide some meaningful and much needed support for producers right now,” Bessent said.
Not all portions of the law were extended. There were 21 programs that were cut from the 2018 Farm Bill. Some of them directly apply to Texas agriculture — money for the eradication and control of feral hogs, rural economic development, and emergency research into citrus disease.
In the 2018 law, the programs accounted for $906 million of the $428 billion in the budget. Funds for 19 of the programs were included with the first extension in 2023.
Lavender, with the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said Congress failed to build and protect investments in conservation programs. He said there are some positives, particularly with disaster relief. However, there was still a lot left out.
Source: Jayme Lozano Carver, The Texas Tribune
Photo: A cotton field near Lubbock in 2022 was hit by drought conditions. Texas farmers have been waiting for Congress to update the national agriculture laws to help with crop insurance and other issues. Credit: Trace Thomas for The Texas Tribune
