House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway updated the farm reporters this week on key legislative efforts, including the farm bill and tax reform legislation. Tax reform took another big step forward with the House GOP passing 216 to 212, a Senate budget that will allow the Senate GOP to pass a tax bill without any Democrats.
Tax and budget action will play a role in how much money the committee has to work with to write the bill, a figure that has been a moving target for Conaway.
This week’s budget action will also set the farm bill schedule, according Conaway.
Conaway says ending the estate tax is the most important part for agriculture, along with tax simplification and immediate deductibility of expenses.
Conaway, meantime, is reluctant to predict how the Agriculture Committee will handle any one farm bill program, like the popular CRP, until the Congressional Budget Office certifies available spending figures.
But he says one critical issue that will take more than just basic math is crop insurance. Conaway says the GAO and insurance industries need to ‘get on the same page’ in figuring out insurer profitability.
The GAO has produced differing assessments of crop insurer profitability, key to perennial farm bill arguments over whether insurance subsidies can be pared. House and Senate farm leaders adamantly oppose cuts to crop insurance, now protected with other farm bill programs by a Senate budget amendment.
