Vilsack Plays the Political Card in New Farm Bill Debate

A majority of Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee, influenced by proposals aligned with the Republican Study Committee (RSC), are pushing for significant changes to farm policy, including cutting subsidies for wealthier farmers, altering crop insurance premiums and ending enrollment in major land stewardship programs, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said Monday in comments to the North American Agricultural Journalists. Vilsack highlighted the challenge of passing a bipartisan farm bill amidst a closely divided Congress. He emphasized the need for bipartisan support, especially as Republicans hold a narrow margin in the House, and Democrats have only a slight edge in the Senate. With farm bill negotiations stalled over issues like crop subsidies, climate funding and SNAP, Vilsack proposed utilizing the Commodity Credit Corp. reserve to support farmers. He cautioned against RSC’s “radical” proposals, which could significantly reduce USDA spending on agricultural programs.

The RSC proposals include shutting off crop subsidies to farmers with more than $500,000 a year in adjusted gross income, requiring growers to pay a larger share of the premium for subsidized crop insurance and ending enrollment in the two largest USDA land stewardship programs, the Conservation Reserve Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program.

The “pretty radical” RSC recommendations would result in “a pretty significant retreat” in USDA spending on agriculture programs, Vilsack said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how it’s playing with members of the House,” he said.

Comments: Here is what Vilsack did not tell the ag reporters, nor did they report this: Nobody takes the RSC budget seriously.

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