The White House says overall spending for USDA in the last fiscal year was $5.5 billion lower than expected. One of the reasons disaster spending which was $1.2 billion lower than estimated. South Dakota Corn Grower’s President Keith Alverson, who sits on the NCGA board, says that’s a good reason not to cut the crop insurance program.

Alverson says they’ll be able to use these figures to show Congress how cost effective and reliable the risk management program is.

The other reason USDA spending was lower in 2014 was because of less spending than estimated on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program.