With congressional leadership signaling their support for getting a new farm bill in place within the next several months, activity has begun in earnest to develop legislation that can be enacted this year. The 2008 Farm Bill expired on September 30, 2012, though many of its provisions were extended for one year in legislation that was passed in January to avoid the looming fiscal cliff. The Senate and House Agriculture Committees released their bills on May 9 and 10 respectively and debated the bills in committee this week, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

Both bills closely resemble legislation that each chamber was deliberating before the last Congress adjourned, including amendments that were added in the committees and on the Senate floor. The bills include cost reductions to help address ongoing budget challenges, with most of the significant reductions in both bills coming from the elimination of direct payments to farmers.

The House Committee on Agriculture's discussion draft of the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) Act of 2013 closely mirrors a bill that was passed by the committee last year but failed to reach a vote on the House floor. Overall the bill would reduce agricultural spending by $39.7 billion over the next ten years, including a $6.9 billion cut in conservation programs over that time frame. The bill consolidates the 23 existing farm bill conservation programs to 13 by either eliminating smaller programs or lumping them within broader programs. Enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program would be reduced to 24 million acres, one million less than proposed in last year's House bill. The Conservation Stewardship Program, the bill's largest program that provides tiered incentives for environmental stewardship, would be limited to 8.695 million acres in new enrollment. After 10 hours of deliberation, the House Agriculture Committee passed the bill by a vote of 36-10 shortly after midnight on May 16.

"I'm pleased the Committee was able to work together, find some common ground, and advance a five-year farm bill today. Needless to say this process has gone on far too long and it is past time to get this bill done. With today's action, I'm optimistic the farm bill will continue through regular order and be brought to the House floor in June. If we can stay on track, I think we should be able to conference with the Senate in July and have a new five-year farm bill in place before the August recess," said the committee's Ranking Member Collin Peterson.

The Senate Agriculture Committee's bill, the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013, was introduced on May 9 and approved by the committee on May 14 by a 15-5 vote. The bill closely resembles the bill that chamber passed in the last Congress and touts reducing the budget deficit by $23 billion over the next decade largely through eliminating direct payments to farmers and increasing crop insurance instead. Similar to the House bill, the Senate consolidates conservation programs into four fundamental program functions, Working Lands (incorporating the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Stewardship Program, Conservation Innovation Grants, and the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program); Conservation Reserve Program; Regional Conservation Partnerships; and Easements. Majority Leader Harry Reid has committed to bringing the bill to the Senate floor the week of May 20.

Conservation Compliance

Of key importance, the Senate bill includes language that links conservation compliance with participation in crop insurance subsidy programs; the House bill, however, does not. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is on record in support of this concept with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack pointing out that the United States loses about 1.5 billion tons of topsoil annually to erosion. In addition to Vilsack, six former Chiefs of the Natural Resources Conservation Service sent a letter to members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees urging their support for tying conservation to insurance payments in the new legislation.

In addition, in early May a group of 32 conservation and farm groups reached an agreement to have agricultural production groups drop their opposition to conservation compliance in exchange for conservation groups opposing changes to premium assistance or eligibility for the crop insurance program. Under the recommendations, crop insurance would continue to be available to help farmers manage their risks and meet the requirements of their lenders. But under certain circumstances, if a farmer were found to be out of compliance with conservation mandates, his or her eligibility for premium assistance would be eliminated until compliance conditions are satisfied.

"It is no secret that much of agriculture fought the compliance amendment during last year's Senate debate on the farm bill," American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman explained. "But our desire to avoid a time-consuming and contentious debate with our long-standing partners on workable environmental stewardship programs helped build a consensus around rational provisions that protect farmers while furthering the conservation of natural resources."

"The Senate farm bill includes an historic agreement between agriculture and conservation organizations to ensure that basic soil and wetland protection requirements were extended to apply to crop insurance premium subsidies," said Julie Sibbing, director of Agriculture and Forestry Programs with the National Wildlife Federation. "NWF thanks the Committee members for their support of the agreement."

At the same time, not all conservation groups supported the agreement and have taken the position that conservation should be linked to all aspects of a federal farm safety net and reasonable limits should apply to all subsidies. In addition, Representative Frank Lucas, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, has made it clear that he has a philosophical problem with "tying strings to how farmers farm" and has expressed his opposition to conservation compliance.

"My perspective has always been, very sincerely, if a farm bill is about raising food ? and I know 80% of it now is about making sure people have enough to eat, helping them buy their food ? but if it is about raising food, farmers should have the tools to raise the food and fiber," Lucas said. "And if you engage in whole series of things, such as you can't get crop insurance unless you plant in a certain way, on a certain day, in a certain direction, or you can't access a variety of other programs, then we aren't having a farm bill that helps farmers raise food and fiber, but we have a social tool here that's used to direct how farmers use their lives and conduct their business."

Conservation compliance linkage to insurance subsidies is just one aspect of the new farm bill that will need to be resolved. The much more contentious issues including funding reductions to federal nutrition programs and establishing a process to distribute agricultural subsidies equitably around the country remain to be solved and pose much bigger challenges to passing a new farm bill. (jas & pmr)