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The farm bill connects the food on our plates, the farmers and ranchers who produce that food, and the natural resources – our soil, air and water – that make growing food possible. The farm bill is a package of legislation passed roughly once every five years that has a tremendous impact on farming livelihoods, how food is grown, and what kinds of foods are grown. Covering programs ranging from crop insurance for farmers to healthy food access for low-income families, from beginning farmer training to support for sustainable farming practices, the farm bill sets the stage for our food and farm systems. As a leading advocate for family farmers and sustainable agriculture, it’s our job to make sure that this important bill is good for farmers, consumers, and for the natural environment. Every five years, the farm bill expires and is updated: it goes through an extensive process where it is proposed, debated, and passed by Congress and is then signed into law by the President. Each farm bill has a unique title, and the current farm bill is called the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018. It was enacted into law in December 2018 and expires in 2023. The original farm bill(s) were enacted in three stages during the 1930s as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. Its three original goals –
While the farm bill has changed in the last 70 years, its primary goals are the same. Our food and farming system confronts new challenges today, but through citizen and stakeholder action for a fair farm bill, we can ensure the vibrancy and productivity of our agriculture, economy, and communities for generations to come. Farm Bill Basics
1. What does the farm bill cover? The farm bill’s chapters are called titles. The numbers and the substance matter of the titles can change over time. The 2018 Farm Bill, for instance, has twelve titles. Here’s what they’re called (and what they cover): Title 1: Commodities. The Commodities title covers
price and income support for the farmers who raise widely-produced and traded
non-perishable crops, like corn, soybeans, wheat, and rice – as well as dairy
and sugar. The title also includes agricultural disaster assistance. 2. Who in Congress writes the farm
bill? Members of Congress who sit on the Senate and House Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry hold the primary responsibility of drafting farm bills. ·
The Senate
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry · The House Committee on Agriculture 3. What is not included in the farm
bill? While the Farm Bill covers a swath of key agricultural policy topics, there are some policy areas that are not included, such as: ·
Farm and food worker rights and
protections
·
Public land grazing rights
·
Irrigation water rights
·
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
food safety
·
Renewable fuels standards
·
Tax issues
·
School meals
·
The Women, Infants, and Children
(WIC) program
·
Some pesticide Laws
·
Clean Water Act
·
Clean Air Act
While these issues are directly related to agriculture, they are not included in the farm bill because they fall outside of the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Committees and are instead considered under the jurisdiction of other committees. For example, Farmworker Rights and Protections fall under the jurisdiction of the House Education and Labor Committee and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. 4. How much does the farm bill
cost? The 2018 Farm Bill is projected to cost about $428 billion over the five years of the bill’s life, according to the estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. While all of the farm bill funding
numbers are projections, some are more firm projections than others.
The costs of the bill’s three major groups of entitlement programs – the
commodity, crop insurance, and SNAP programs – depend on what happens in the
commodity markets and the general economy over the coming five years.
Therefore, actual costs could be higher or lower than the projections.  Source: USDA Economic Research Service Based on
Congressional Budget Office, Direct Spending Effects for the Agriculture
Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill), December 11, 2018
Less than five billion of the $428 billion projected for the 2018 farm bill is allocated for programs that fit under the “Other” category, which includes many vital programs such as the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), the Farming Opportunities Training and Outreach (FOTO) program, Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), and the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP). 5. How does the farm bill process
work? There are four main phases of the farm bill process, from drafting the new legislation to putting the programs into effect on the ground. Here’s how it works: REAUTHORIZATION First:
The Reauthorization phase, in which a new farm bill is written and
passed into law approximately every five years.  ·
HEARINGS ·
AGRICULTURAL COMMITTEES ·
FULL CONGRESS / “THE FLOOR” ·
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ·
FULL CONGRESS / “THE FLOOR” ·
LAST STEP: THE WHITE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS Once the farm bill is signed into law, it’s time for the Appropriations phase: setting money aside in the yearly federal budget to fund the programs in the farm bill. Rather than a calendar year, the federal government operates on a fiscal year from October 1st to September 30th. Some farm bill programs – called entitlements – are written in such a way that their funding is guaranteed with ‘mandatory money’ that will automatically support the program every year. An example of an entitlement program is the Supplemental Nutrition Access Program (SNAP). Other programs are authorized but funded through discretionary spending – meaning agriculture appropriators must decide each year how much funding (if any) to award a program. Because of budgetary constraints, not every program can be structured as an entitlement and generally it is much easier to include new programs in the farm bill if they are subject to appropriations. Though the farm bill expires and is reauthorized every 5 years or so, the appropriations process takes place each year. The farm bill includes language that authorizes programs and sets the maximum funding levels for each program for the years covered by the farm bill. However, authorized funding isn’t the same as appropriated funding and appropriators may choose to provide funding well below the maximum amount that was authorized. The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program, for example, has been authorized at $60 million per year since it was first introduced in 1985, but has not yet been funded above $37 million per year.  1. First, the president’s budget proposing how funding should be allocated to various federal programs is sent to Congress for their consideration. The House and Senate budget committees then draft and negotiate a concurrent budget resolution. The concurrent budget resolution provides appropriations committees with a framework for making funding decisions and sets a ceiling on how much funding is available to the appropriations committees for determining which programs receive discretionary funding. 2. Next, the process moves to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, responsible for determining program-by-program funding levels across all areas of the US Government. Oftentimes, appropriators use the President’s budget as a starting point for negotiations and decisions, but very rarely do they simply accept the president’s recommendations. 3. Within the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittees – the people responsible for designating farm, food, and rural development program funding. The Subcommittees get input for their funding decisions in a few ways: ·
by holding public hearings and
inviting testimony from experts and agencies
·
by requesting and considering
funding requests from all legislators and staff (both on and off committee);
·
And by meeting with constituents
and advocates of programs to discuss funding priorities
4. From this input, the subcommittee staff puts together a proposed agriculture appropriations bill that the subcommittee will review and make changes (aka amendments), and approve the bill through a process called “markup”. Once passed by the subcommittee, these bills are submitted to the full Appropriations Committees, where they go through another round of review and changes – “full committee markup”. 5. Once a bill has been marked up by the full Appropriations Committee, following subcommittee markup, the bill is brought to the full floor of the respected chamber of Congress for consideration. During the full floor passage, members of Congress can also make further changes to the bill, via amendments, prior to final passage. 6. Much like with the farm bill, differences in House and Senate appropriations bills get sorted out via a small group of legislators called the conference committee. Legislators have until the end of the fiscal year (11:59 pm September 30th) to reconcile their chamber’s respective bills, write a single compromise bill, and pass it on the full floor of both the House and the Senate. After Congressional passage, the bill is sent to the White House and is signed into law by the President. Because the appropriations process is such a contentious process, this deadline is not often met, and lawmakers must then pass a “continuing resolution”, which maintains existing funding levels from the previous fiscal year so as to prevent a government shutdown. RULEMAKING Happening concurrently with the annual appropriations process is rulemaking. After Congress passes a farm bill, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for writing the actual rules for how these programs will be implemented on the ground. This phase is called Administration (or Rulemaking). Wins for sustainable agriculture in the farm bill require vigilant attention during this phase to ensure the rules implement programs in a way that reflects the intent of Congress – and of the farmers and advocates who helped shape the bill! ·
Advocates and experts check in with
agency staff at USDA, track the status of particular programs, and share
their input. ·
Grassroots individuals have a major
role to play during this stage, by commenting on USDA’s proposed rules for
farm bill programs. · Proposed agency rules are published in the Federal Register and are usually open for public comment from 30-90 days. When rules are posted, NSAC and its member groups will provide example comments that grassroots individuals can use in formulating their own responses. OUTREACH AND
EVALUATION And always, when program funding is appropriated and rules are set in place for implementation, it’s time for outreach and evaluation! Here is the true test of program success: do farmers, ranchers, and grassroots organizations use the program? Does the program accomplish its goals and reach the people it is meant to reach on the ground? Is it having an impact? At this phase, grassroots organizations and USDA both promote funding opportunities, requests for grant proposals, and sign-ups for programs. Spreading the word is important to make sure everyone hears about programs and can access the information needed to participate. And following up on the successes and challenges of specific farm bill programs is another key step in improving our food and farming system. By sharing evaluation and feedback on farm bill programs, farmers and constituents give lawmakers and agencies the information they need to fix any problems in the bill, and to work towards building a better farm bill for everyone. 6. Farm Bill 101 Webinars In 2017, NSAC co-hosted several webinars in partnership with the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group to take a deeper look at some of the programmatic areas of the farm bill and identify ways one can become involved in “agvocacy!” We are in the
process of recording updated webinars for the 2023 Farm Bill cycle and will
add links when they are ready.
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“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” —Angela Davis |
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