Farm Bill Update--Senate Republicans Weigh In.

Ranking Senate Agriculture Committee member John Boozman wants more "farm" in the farm bill.

(THIS FARM BILL UPDATE WAS CO-WRITTEN BY JAKE DAVIS.)

The lead Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, John Boozman (R-AR), issued his caucus’s Farm Bill “Framework” yesterday, echoing much of the rhetoric and talking points delivered earlier in the process by House Agriculture Republicans.

“The world has changed dramatically since the 2018 bill became law, and the unprecedented challenges and economic uncertainty that farmers face now are only projected to get worse in the coming years,” Boozman said in a statement. “This is why producers have been calling on senators to put more farm in the farm bill.”

“Our framework released today meets that call by modernizing the farm safety net, facilitating the expansion of access to overseas markets, fostering breakthroughs in agricultural research and growing the rural communities our farmers, ranchers and foresters call home – all while making a historic investment in conservation and protecting nutrition programs that help Americans in need,” Boozman said.

The number of farmers nationwide impacted by these changes—and the number of voters likely to prioritize the Republican approach—is tiny. As reported earlier in The Cocklebur, Republican plans to raise reference prices is expected to benefit fewer than 6,000 farms nationwide according to an analysis from the Environmental Working Group (EWG). EWG found that raising reference prices would help only 0.3% of the nation’s nearly 2 millions farms, mostly large peanut, cotton, and rice operations in Southern states.

Senate Agriculture Committee Republicans hail from the heart of rowcrop country in the Midwest and South. Their version of “supporting farmers” means increasing government payments to a relatively small number of producers, further concentrating wealth and market power among what we call “Monopoly Farmers.”

Senate Republicans would also make some cuts to SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as food stamps), a program that serves thousands more constituents than government payments to farmers. In Boozman’s home state of Arkansas, for instance, only 10,881 farms receive government payments of any kind according to the most recent Ag Census. More than 240,000 Arkansans receive SNAP nutrition benefits each month.

Republicans will likely use this Framework as a tool to respond to the pending Senate Agriculture Committee Farm Bill draft. Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) is expected to release the Democrats’ proposed bill and hold a committee mark-up this summer.

For more information on the Senate Republican plans, read the University of Illinois’s Farm Policy News summary HERE.

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The Cocklebur covers rural policy and politics from a progressive point-of-view. Our work focuses on a tangled rural political reality of dishonest debate, economic and racial disparities, corporate power over our democracy, and disinformation peddled by conservative media outlets. We aim to use facts, data, and science to inform our point-of-view. We wear our complicated love/WTF relationship with rural America on our sleeve.