Lack Of Farm Bill Leaves Farmers In Limbo

By Sam Lewis

As 2013’s legislative working days vanish, so does hope for a new Farm Bill, leaving farmers with uncertainty next year

The U.S. House of Representatives Speaker, John Boehner, has confirmed his chamber will go on recess for the remainder of 2013 at the end of Friday, Dec 13. The upcoming break leaves very little time for the House and Congress to come to terms on key issues facing the agriculture industry before the New Year.

The Farm Bill Conference committee, consisting of members the House of Representatives and the Senate, has been at work since October trying to come to agreement on a new Farm Bill. Both segments have passed their own, greatly different versions of the bill, heavily focused on dairy support programs, the basis of subsidy payments, and nutrition assistance.

“With the 2013 crop just harvested being the last that is subject to the 2008 law, farmers are left making plans for their 2014 crops with uncertainty about the rules and regulations that will govern the farm commodity system,” says Roman Keeney, an associate professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University. While farmers are certainly concerned about the five-year-old policy not being renewed, consumers should also take note. Keeney believes with no farm bill in place before the Jan 1, the price of procuring milk could double, leading to a significant increase in the price of dairy products in grocery aisles.

The Farm Bill Conference Committee faces a rapidly-approaching deadline. However, legislators have the option to re-extend the 2008 Farm Bill for the short or long-term. The current Farm Bill was extended for a year in 2012, with the Sept 30 being its expiration. “Extensions of the 2008 Farm Bill ranging from one month to two years have been discussed,” says Keeney. “The shorter is far more likely as a stopgap to allow the Farm Bill Conference Committee to finalize its report and present it to the chambers to vote.” A short-term extension would stop the escalation in dairy product prices until a new, long-term bill is agreed upon in addition to giving farmers certainty about farming regulations in the coming years.

Keeney says a new farm bill passing early in 2014 would most likely be close to proposals for the bill the Senate has made. The Senate version includes smaller reductions in nutrition assistance, along with more dependence on historical planting to determine subsidy payments. Further, the Obama administration has stated its fondness of this version and will likely veto any law reducing nutrition spending more than $1 billion annually.

However, it cannot be assumed that there will be no cogs in the law-making machine when January arrives. “After a fall session that included a government shutdown over failures in budget negotiations, we can't assume that entrenched positions on reducing spending in the Farm Bill have softened,” says Keeney. With Congress returning to debates regarding the debt ceiling and federal budget in mid-January, both farmers and consumers can only hope that a repeat of autumn’s failed discussions is not in store.

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