The House Ag Committee released its draft of the 2018 farm bill yesterday. Chairman Mike Conaway says the Agriculture & Nutrition Act of 2018 reauthorizes and strengthens the ARC and PLC options through 2023. Producers can make a new election between the two with several improvements, including allowing a new yield update for producers who were facing severe drought during the previous update. It also allows reference prices to adjust to improved market conditions, and prioritizes the use of RMA data for administering ARC to minimize disparities between counties.
At the request of virtually every farmer, Conaway says the farm bill protects crop insurance and works to address the 5-year, 52-percent decline in the farm economy.
Even though Democrats on the committee objected, the farm bill draft also reforms SNAP. Conaway says most notably, existing work requirements are strengthened and combined with employment training as a condition of eligibility for SNAP. As a result, the CBO score came in at zero.
Conaway says the House bill will be marked up Wednesday, April 18.
The farm bill prioritizes working-lands conservation by retaining and folding the best features of the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) into the nation’s flagship incentive-based program for voluntary conservation—the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). It expands CRP to 29 million acres.
It provides funding and vital tools for trade promotion and market development and maintains legal authority for the secretary to provide assistance to farmers and ranchers affected by unfair foreign trading practices.
