THE FARM BILL 2012
The Farm Bill is legislation authorized by the Federal Government every five years. The last one was in 2007.
The Farm Bill covers a wide range of topics, including payments to farmers to support the prices for crops, nutrition programs such as food stamps, international trade, conservation, energy—so many different issues that one person said it covers & “everything we eat, wear, and drive”! The Farm Bill isn’t the only legislation to address these issues, but it is one time when we have an opportunity to speak out on things that concern so many parts of our lives. We should be heard!
The Farm Bill process survived the 12 person Deficit Reduction Commission, appointed to find $1.5 trillion in cuts to government programs before last Thanksgiving. What we have to be thankful for is that the Commission failed: “success” would have likely cut millions of Americans from needed food assistance.
The important players in the Farm Bill include the chairs of the Agriculture Committees of the House and Senate, and of the Ag Appropriations Committee in the Senate. The House Ag Committee chair is Rep. Frank Lucas, of Oklahoma. Lucas has indicated he desires to see a Farm Bill pass before the 2012 election, even though a good bill may help President Obama’s standing in rural America. Rep. Lucas’ comments notwithstanding, many analysts still believe that if a Farm Bill is passed it will have greatly reduced spending: http://westernfarmpress.com/farmers-must-prepare-cuts-next-farm-bill
Debbie Stabenow, D-Mi, is Chair of Senate Ag Committee. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California is on the Senate Ag Appropriations Committee.
WHAT DOES THE FARM BILL 2012 MEAN FOR HUNGRY FAMILIES?
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was formerly known as Food Stamps, and now called CalFresh in California. It covers nearly 75% of spending in the Farm Bill. This program helps Americans, both working and non-working, to feed their families especially during the economic crisis. When the last farm bill passed in 2008, there were 25 million Americans getting food benefits. Now there are 45 million Americans relying on SNAP to help feed their families. And those numbers are only going to increase if unemployment benefits expire for millions. On December 10, 2010, Congress passed a Child Nutrition Bill that will help schools serve healthier lunches to children, but it was passed at the cost of future reductions in the budget for SNAP. These reductions mean families will see hundreds of dollars less in monthly assistance beginning in 2013.
Possible threats to the SNAP program in Farm Bill proposals include:
- Change from an entitlement program to a block grant:
- Reductions across the board in monthly benefits to families:
- Changes to rules that will make fewer people eligible, such as making the income limits to qualify lower, so that a person will have to be very poor in order to get benefits: Attempts to restrict what can be bought with SNAP (forbidding junk food or maybe soda):
- Restoration of the “assets” test, meaning not just participants’ income but their holdings in the bank will be used as eligibility criteria.
In the last ten years, the SNAP program has had support from both parties as they have seen it as an economic stimulus (supporting the food industry while helping people buy food for their families) and increase in popularity as states began utilizing technology and relaxed rules to help people enroll in the program quickly .
Given that government spending has become an extremely sensitive political issue, there is a chance that no Farm Bill at all will be passed by 2012. Although the Farm Bill is supposed to be passed every five years, it can be delayed, and in those cases the country operates under a continuance of the previous Farm Bill. Republicans will be torn between passing new ag spending to please their rural constituents, and cutting spending to please the Tea Party and like-minded budget deficit “hawks.” Democrats will likely be pushing for nutrition spending and increases to SNAP.
Recent programs including LA’s Market Match program have illustrated innovative ways of making healthy food (fruits and vegetables) more affordable to low income families. There have been suggestions to include funding for these programs in the next Farm Bill.
President Obama has recently (January 2012) submitted a proposed federal budget that includes $32 billion of cuts in farm subsidies that had been proposed during last year’s deficit reduction process.
