Key Provisions in House Farm Bill

Reference prices | Crop insurance | Payment limits | Base acres | Trade promotion | CCC

Policy Updates
Policy Updates
(Farm Journal)

Reference prices | Crop insurance | Payment limits | Base acres | Trade promotion | CCC


The House Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 introduces significant changes to crop insurance, reference prices, specialty crops, and trade promotion, while also addressing international food aid and foreign farmland ownership. House Ag Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) told us on Agri-Talk this morning that he currently has no firm Democratic member commitment but the bill will clear the May 23 markup in the House Ag Committee. He said House floor strategy will be decided once they see the markup vote. Link to text of the bill. An updated title-by-title summary can be found at this link. Here are the key points of the House farm bill:

Crop Insurance and Specialty Crops

  • Crop Insurance: Enhanced affordability and availability with increased coverage options, especially for young, beginning, and veteran farmers. The Supplemental Coverage Option will cover 90% of the expected county yield, subsidized at 80%.
  • Specialty Crops: The Whole-Farm Revenue Protection program’s coverage will increase up to 90%. The Specialty Crop Block Grant Program receives a $15 million boost, and the Specialty Crop Research Initiative gets at least a $50 million annual increase.

Reference Prices

  • Increase: Crop reference prices will see a 10-20% rise across all commodities to combat inflation and rising costs.
  • Details:

Payment Limits

Two key pay limit provisions in House farm bill:

  • The first ends the disparate treatment of pass-through entities. This is removing red tape and allowing farmers to get the same treatment if they are in an LLC as those in general partnerships (link for background).
  • The second: operations that get 75% of their income from farming are eligible for a payment limit of $155,000 (up from $125,000) that is indexed to inflation going forward. This will put the payment limit back at a level (in real dollars) to what Congress approved in 2018.

On AGI, the House bill includes a waiver from the means test for operations that get 75% of their income from farming, but this waiver only applies to disaster programs (LIP, LFP, ELAP, TAP, and NAP), as well as all conservation programs.

Base Acres

— New opportunity to add base acres in House farm bill proposals. The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 provides an opportunity to add new base acres to farms that have no base, or that have been planting in excess of existing base acres. This provision does not modify or impact existing base acres and will be purely additive for those farms that qualify. Additionally, there are no qualifications relative to the demographics or beginning farmer status of the landowner to be eligible for an assignment of new base acres under this provision.

Eligibility for new base acres

A farm is eligible for an assignment of base acres under this provision if the average number of acres from 2019 through 2023 that were planted or prevented from being planted to covered commodities and eligible non-covered commodities (not to exceed 15% of the total acres on the farm) exceeds the existing base acres on the farm. If after conducting sign-up, the total number of eligible acres across the country exceeds 30 million acres, the Secretary is required to apply a pro-rata reduction to all farms to reduce the number of eligible acres to equal 30 million.

Eligible non-covered commodities

For the purposes of this provision, and to not penalize producers who may be in a crop rotation that contains certain non-covered commodities, the number of eligible acres may include the number of acres planted or prevented from being planted to non-covered commodities other than trees, bushes, vines, and pasture. The acres of non-covered commodities that can count toward the eligible acres on the farm is limited to not exceed 15% of the total acres on the farm.

Assignment of covered commodities

The eligible acres will be assigned to covered commodities using a formula like that utilized for the base reallocation opportunity in the 2014 Farm Bill. The assignment will reflect the ratio of covered commodities planted on the farm from 2019 through 2023.

Link/pdf to examples.

Trade and International Food Aid

  • Trade Promotion: Funding for the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development Program will double.
  • International Aid: Increased requirements for U.S.-grown aid and additional funding for therapeutic food to combat child malnutrition.

Foreign Farmland Ownership

  • Reporting: Enhanced reporting requirements for farmland purchases by entities from adversary countries, with penalties for non-compliance. A digital database will track foreign-owned land.

Farm Bill Battles

  • IRA Funding: Incorporates $13 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act into the farm bill, removing federal mandates on the type of practices that qualify for conservation funding.
  • Thrifty Food Plan: Limits future updates to prevent SNAP benefit increases or cuts, reallocating funds to strengthen existing nutrition programs. Democrats oppose this measure.
  • Felon Ban: Removes the lifetime ban on SNAP benefits for those with previous felony drug convictions.
  • Tribal Nutrition: Makes permanent self-determination projects for the food box distribution program.
  • Dietary Policy: Updates the federal dietary policy for the first time in two decades, impacting SNAP and school meals.

CCC Authority

  • Restrictions: Limits the Agriculture secretary’s authority over Commodity Credit Corporation funding, which could prevent presidents from using USDA funds for farm bailouts during trade wars.