Tuesday, President Obama released his $ 3.9 trillion fiscal year 2015 budget proposal. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack defended the proposed budget which calls for cutting the rate of return for crop insurance companies from 14 % to 12 % as well as capping the administrative and operating reimbursements to $ 900 million a year. It also calls for cutting premium subsidies on some crop insurance policies by 3 % and cutting other policies by an additional 4 %.

Vilsack says his department’s priorities are making sure there’s a solid crop insurance program and at the same time meeting other priorities.

Congress would have to draft new legislation to make the crop insurance cuts which the White House estimated would reduce crop insurance costs by $ 14.2 billion over 10 years. That’s unlikely to happen but Vilsack says they had to be consistent because crop insurance cuts have been proposed every year as part of the President’s budget.