About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 1 (December 27, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/govervb0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Farm Bill Primer: Background and Status The farm bill is an omnibus, multiyear law that governs an array of agricultural and food programs. It provides an opportunity for policymakers to comprehensively and periodically address agricultural and food issues. The farm bill has typically been renewed about every five years since the 1930s (CRS Report R45210, Farm Bills: Major Legislative Actions, 1965-2024). at sina Farm The breadth of the farm bill is optional and determined mostly by the joint jurisdiction of the House and Senate agriculture committees. Initially, farm bills focused on support for a handful of staple commodities-corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, dairy, and sugar. Since 1973, farm bills have become increasingly expansive, when a nutrition title was first included. Other prominent additions include formerly stand-alone laws, such as conservation, credit, and research. New topics were added, such as bioenergy and horticulture. In 2024, the farm bill considered by the House committee (H.R. 8467) and introduced in the Senate (S. 5335) contained the same 12 titles as the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 farm bill; P.L. 115-334; see text box). The omnibus nature of the farm bill can create broad coalitions for policies that individually might not have a majority of support in the legislative process. In recent years, more stakeholders have become involved in the farm bill debate representing conservation, rural development, nutrition, local food systems, and organic production. hen Does the Farm B xpre? The 2018 farm bill was written to cover five years through FY2023 and the 2023 crop year. Congress enacted a one- year extension in November 2023 for 2024 (P.L. 118-22, Division B, §102) and a second one-year extension in December 2024 to cover FY2025 and the 2025 crop year (P.L. 118-158, Division D). Without reauthorization, some farm bill programs expire and may not continue operations. Most nutrition assistance programs can be continued by providing appropriations. Farm commodity programs need to be reauthorized for future crop years. The farm bill also suspends long- abandoned permanent laws from the 1940s for the farm commodity programs that used supply controls and price regimes that would be costly to implement if their suspension expires. Other programs like crop insurance have permanent authority and do not need reauthorization (CRS Report R47659, Expiration of the 2018 Farm Bill and Extension for 2025). Updated December 27, 2024 hat Does the Farr Cost Farm bills authorize programs in two spending categories: mandatory and discretionary. They authorize mandatory funding for programs based on multiyear budget estimates (baseline) and estimates of what provisions in newly enacted bills cost (scores). Programs authorized for discretionary funding are not funded by the farm bill and depend on future appropriations action. Mandatory programs usually dominate the farm bill debate (CRS In Focus IF12233, Farm Bill Primer: Budget Dynamics). Farm bills have both 5-year and 10-year budget projections for the programs that operate as entitlements based on formulas and eligibility criteria. The 10-year projection for the 2018 farm bill was $867 billion over FY2019-FY2028 (Table 1). Four titles accounted for 99% of the 2018 farm bill's mandatory spending: nutrition (primarily the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP), farm commodities, crop insurance, and conservation. Programs in all other farm bill titles accounted for about 1% of mandatory outlays and receive mostly discretionary funds.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most