Outlook for Farm Policy in Lame Duck Session of Congress
The one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill began to expire on October 1 as Congress continues its efforts to develop and pass a new Farm Bill before the end of 2024. The more significant expiration of Farm Bill provisions and time when either another extension or a new bill will be needed is the end of December. In early 2025, USDA would be forced to begin to implement certain provisions of “permanent law” which requires setting parity prices for various commodities and is generally seen as unworkable. Importantly, unlike previous expirations of farm policy, most of the primary working lands conservation programs did not expire this year because the programs – EQIP, CSP, RCPP, and ACEP – were authorized and funded through fiscal year 2031 in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed by Congress in 2022.
Following the elections in early November, Congress will return for a few short weeks before the end of the year for the remaining time in the current Congressional session (lame duck session). In addition to several “must pass” items like funding the Federal government and the National Defense Authorization Act, Congress must provide funding to respond and recover from the recent hurricanes and other natural disasters that have struck this year, including much needed disaster assistance for farmers and ranchers. This is likely to create even more pressure to complete a new Farm Bill by the end of the year given the severe economic and natural disaster losses occurring across most sectors of production agriculture.
In addition to the need for ad hoc disaster assistance and relief for natural disasters that have impacted agriculture in both 2023 and 2024, there is growing momentum for specific economic relief in light of the continued high input costs, along with market returns below cost of production for most commodities this year. In the House, Rep. Trent Kelly (R-MS), a senior Member of the House Agriculture Committee, has developed the FARM Act (Farmer Assistance and Revenue Mitigation Act of 2024) and is currently collecting cosponsors before introducing the measure soon. This bill would provide emergency funding to make payments to crop producers based on their revenue losses in the 2024 growing season. Some details of the proposed bill include:
- Commodities eligible are barley, corn, cotton, dry peas, grain sorghum, lentils, large chickpeas, oats, peanuts, rice, small chickpeas, soybeans, other oilseeds, and wheat
- Payments would be based on projected cost per acre from USDA data and projected returns based on USDA’s 10-year average crop yield and current 2024 projected marketing year average price
- Acres eligible are 100% of planted acres in 2024 and 50% of prevented planted acres in 2024.
- Total payments would be factored by 60%, so the payment formula would be:
- (projected cost – projected returns) X eligible acres X 60% = total payment
- Payment limits would be $175,000 per person if less than 75% of income is from farming, and $350,000 per person if more than 75% of income is from farming
The bill has been endorsed by numerous national and regional farm and commodity organizations including the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Regarding work on the new Farm Bill, staff on the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are continuing to meet and negotiate policy differences with the goal of being able to finalize a new Farm Bill this year. While time is short, we remain cautiously optimistic enough progress can be made to finalize a new Farm Bill before Congress adjourns this year. However, some of this is also contingent on the outcome of the upcoming election and if control of the Senate and/or House will change next Congress. If Congress cannot complete a new Farm Bill by yearend, another one-year extension will be necessary and then the new Congress, and some new leadership, will need to restart the Farm Bill development process early in the new year. Farmers and ranchers need and deserve the stability and certainty of an updated, relevant, long-term Farm Bill, coupled with effective disaster assistance and economic relief in the interim before a new Farm Bill take effect.