Moving forward, stability and clarity are a critical factor in any business operation, and farming is no exception. The complexities of farming are unparalleled and one of the underpinnings of sustainable agriculture practices is having a strong Farm Bill.
The Farm Bill is complex and reaches well beyond the farm. The path to reauthorizing the Farm Bill is like an old farm field filled with rocks.
The starting line for a potential 2023 Farm Bill in the U.S. House of Representatives is the Committee on Agriculture. There is a parallel process in the Senate, but this article focuses on the House. To provide some perspective on the reauthorization debate, it is important to understand the diversity of the districts represented by members of the House Agriculture Committee.
If Congress reauthorizes the omnibus suite of programs and policies in a farm bill this year, that path begins at the committee level. Committees are the workhorses of Congress; they hold the hearings, investigate, provide oversight, and either review bills introduced or initiate the drafting.
For complex, omnibus legislation like a farm bill, the committees often take the lead on negotiating and writing early drafts, as well as consolidating various bills introduced by other Members. A committee print of legislation will be brought before the committee or subcommittees in a process known as a markup where members consider and debate the bill, as well as offer and debate amendments to revise it. If the committee agrees on legislative text, it will vote to report it to the full chamber for consideration, debate and possible further amendment or revision.
The chair and ranking member of the committee manages the bill on the floor. If a conference committee is convened to work out the differences between House and Senate versions, the four committee leads (chair and ranking from House and Senate, commonly referred to as the “four corners”), along with other committee members appointed by leadership, will resolve differences and produce a final legislative text. This conference bill is reported back to the House and Senate for final consideration and, if passed, is presented to the President for signature or veto.
The House Agriculture Committee is composed of a diverse group of members. For perspective, given relatively proportional representation, the total population represented by each caucus on the Committee is close: the 28 Republicans represent a total of 21.4 million people, while the 25 Democrats represent just over 18 million people. These millions of people are very diverse and often have “uncommon interests”, agriculture belongs to the entire population and should be beyond political party. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (“SNAP”) take up most of the Farm Bill budget, and therefore get much scrutiny.
Both Republicans and Democrats represent relatively similar numbers of households receiving SNAP benefits in FY2018: 909,260 for Republicans and 882,771 for Democrats. USDA typically administers 15 domestic food and nutrition assistance programs that together affect the lives of millions of people and account for roughly two-thirds of its annual budget. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, USDA launched additional programs and expanded the scope and coverage of existing ones.
While the view from the starting line in the Committee on Agriculture of the U.S. House of Representatives is one of stark differences between Republicans and Democrats, both represent nearly equal numbers of households receiving SNAP, districts represented by Republicans have far more farmers, land in farms and receive a larger share of total farm payments. Among other things, one result is that Democratic districts represent a much larger ratio of SNAP households to farms. If a Congress narrowly divided between the parties is to achieve a farm bill reauthorization in 2023, it will likely require strong bi-partisan support.
Communication churn at every level to bring people and the Farm Bill together will be necessary to produce a bountiful legislative crop.
To view the article in the online 2023 Summer Partners Magazine, click here.
