Farm Bill Update

Final Farm Bill Falls Short of a Faithful Farm Bill

by Leslie Woods

On February 7, President Obama signed into law the newest Farm Bill. Unfortunately, the best I can say about the overall bill is that it could have been worse.  The PC(USA) has a long history of supporting a Farm Bill that connects hungry people to what should be a sustainable food system. Last year, both the PC(USA) Big Tent and Ecumenical Advocacy Days focused on Food Justice. But this bill falls short of the justice we seek.

The Bad News: the bill cuts $8 billion from SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program. In this economic climate, it is unconscionable that we are cutting nutrition assistance to some of the most vulnerable people in the country. Due to these cuts, some 850,000 households will lose an average of $90 per month.  These cuts are unacceptable. Further, the Farm Bill fails to make reforms to Farm programs that benefit corporate Ag, like commodity and crop insurance subsidies.

The Good News: the bill invests over $1.2 billion in the innovative programs for beginning farmers, local food, organic agriculture, rural development, and specialty crops that were stranded when the Farm Bill expired in 2012.  The bill also reconnects crop insurance subsidies to basic conservation requirements. Furthermore, under this new law, U.S. international humanitarian food aid becomes much more efficient and culturally appropriate. These were all key requests of the faith community.

A Reason to be Relieved: I am not writing today about a $40 billion cut to SNAP and the four million people who would be about to lose their benefits, as I would if the House-passed Farm Bill had become law. Indeed, when thousands of Presbyterians responded to frantic action alerts about that $40 billion cut in September 2013, I could not have imagined that the final, comparable damage would be so small. 

So, the new Farm Bill is a mixed bag. The SNAP cuts are appalling, but they are not nearly as bad as they could be – or even than we thought they would be only a few months ago. The farm programs are investing in some new and innovative ideas in agriculture, even while they fall short of real reform of the system.  In all, this is not a good bill, nor is it something the PC(USA) can support, but it does do some good things.  

Farm Bill Update from NSAC

Last week, we posted an update on the Farm Bill that focused largely on the Nutrition section of the bill. On Friday, the National Sustainable Agriculture blog had a helpful piece on of our other concerns in Farm Bill negotiations.  Read it all here or see the Farm Bill excerpts below:

Farm Bill and Budget Deal Moving Forward

December 13th, 2013

Farm Bill

Behind closed door action on the farm bill this week did not yield the expected announcement of an agreed upon framework, but did seem to push closer toward a final package.  There has been a very noticeable uptick in discussions and decision making on numerous issues that had, in earlier negotiations, been left open.  And by most accounts, budget estimates for the emerging commodity title of the farm bill have just been completed that suggest they are close to their overall spending and deficit reduction goals for the commodity subsidy portion of the farm bill.

Negotiations are expected to continue next week, even with the House having left for the holidays, with the goal of having everything ready for a formal meeting of the conference committee on January 8 or 9.  At that time, the conferees will vote an any issues that have not been settled behind closed doors, and then vote to adopt the final conference report.  At this point in time, that is expected to be a one-and-done meeting of the conferees.

To the best of our knowledge, some major issues remain open and under active debate.  Those include:

• commodity program payment limit reform (including closing the loopholes that allow farms to collect unlimited subsidies) that is included in both bills, yet still faces backroom opposition by anti-reform forces;
• nationwide sodsaver protection (crop insurance reform to reduce subsidized destruction of grasslands) included in the Senate bill;
• an assault on fair market competition in the livestock sector that would eliminate most of USDA’s authority to maintain a fair and competitive market and to protect the rights of farmers and ranchers, an anti-farmer provision included in the House bill;
• reversing consumer-right-to-know country of origin labeling for meat, also included in the House bill; and
• the King amendment, another House provision, that would curtail the rights of states to regulate food, agriculture, and natural resources.

Some of those, if still unresolved after next week, could possibly go to a public vote when the conferees meet in January.  We expect some of these to be worked out next week, eliminating the need for specific votes.  Other unresolved issues might also be added to the list of issues requiring votes.

It appears that the big issues that have taken up much of the time in the so-called gang of four negotiations between the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are close to finished.  That includes the widely reported, though still not officially confirmed, cut to the SNAP or food stamp program of $8-9 billion over the next 10 years.  All or nearly all of the reduction is reportedly coming from forcing states to give low-income families receiving heating assistance more money before they can use that heating benefit as a deduction to qualify for a higher SNAP benefit.  The food stamp title of the bill is also expected to include some job training pilot projects in lieu of the House-passed work requirement.

It also includes the new commodity program that would give grain and oilseed producers a choice between revenue protection payments or counter-cyclical payments.  Both will be based on an updated version of historic “base” acres and will not be based on actual planted acres in the future.

Assuming a final bill gets mostly wrapped up next week and is then presented to the conferees on January 8 or 9, and assuming that after voting on the remaining open issues, a majority of the conferees support the final bill, it will then presumably be scheduled for floor action in the House and Senate later in January, about the same time, perhaps, as the final omnibus appropriations bill is also headed for floor action.

The latter must be passed by January 15 in order to avert a second government shutdown.  The farm bill, on the other hand, does not have such a hard deadline, but will have the threat of antiquated permanent commodity program law kicking in and causing market mayhem.  The House in fact this week passed a one-month extension of the old farm bill in order to defend themselves against charges of allowing those old farm programs to kick in.  The Senate, wisely, is not taking up the extension, choosing instead to focus on getting the new farm bill finished and passed.  A farm bill extension back on October 1, when the old farm bill expired, would have been a positive thing.  But at this point in time, it is too late to be helpful, and could seriously harm the momentum that is building to get the new farm bill finished.

The vote on a final farm bill could turn out to be a close vote, and for sure will require substantial Democratic votes to pass.  Aware of that reality, and upset that the budget deal did not include an extension of unemployment compensation benefits, some Democratic leaders are pushing to use a portion of the savings to be generated by the farm bill to offset additional unemployment benefits.  Benefits otherwise expire at the end of this year for many of the long-term unemployed.  Whether that play moves forward or not will depend in part on how many Republican votes can be rallied to support passage of the final farm bill.

It will be a busy week next week, with a Senate vote on the budget deal, with appropriators getting to work on the final spending bills for this year as soon as the Senate passes the budget, and with intense work on the details of all the titles of the farm bill.  Then everyone will depart from the Hill, go home and drink lots of eggnog, and come back for what is shaping up to be a momentous January.

Year-end Farm Bill Update

It appears that House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders are close to a Farm Bill deal. While we have not seen legislative language, it is our understanding that under the working agreement on the farm bill, the nutrition title would include $8-9 billion in cuts to SNAP made by taking the House level cut to the Heat and Eat program, concentrating the full impact of the cuts in the 16 states that participate. Leaders had hoped to unveil the deal this week, but a key budget analyst was snowed in in New Jersey and unable to provide the necessary Congressional Budget Office scores in time for action before the House adjourns tomorrow, Friday, Dec 13. As such, Ag Committee leaders announced their intention to move the bill in early January.

The House has introduced legislation providing a short-term farm bill extension through January. House Ag Chairman Lucas (R-OK) wanted the legislation in case it looks like Congress won't be able to wrap up the full farm bill reauthorization in early January. In the meantime, Senate leaders have stated explicitly that they will not take up an extension, hoping to maintain pressure on Congress to wrap up negotiations and vote on a final farm bill in early January. One major concern that arises by not passing a bill by December 31^st is that dairy programs will revert back to 1949 farm law, which required USDA to provide price supports at a much higher level than today and which could lead to a significant spike in milk prices. However, Secretary Vilsack has assured negotiators that, provided they take action in early January, he will hold off on implementing permanent law and milk prices will not be impacted.

Agriculture Committee leaders met Tuesday and are scheduled to meet again today. While the House is not in session next week, Chairman Lucas and Ranking Member Peterson (D-MN) are expected to come back next week to finish up negotiations with Senators Stabenow (D-MI) and Cochran (R-MS) to finalize the framework. Staff would finish writing legislative language to match the framework deal before Congress returns in January. In January, the conference committee would have a public meeting to vote on the conference agreement. Some amendments may be concerned at the conference committee level to allow members who are unhappy with certain elements of the legislation to raise their concerns. The bill would then move to the House and Senate floor for final passage. 

Many thanks for all of your tremendous advocacy efforts. Together with our partners, we generated over 4,000 calls to Congress last week and Presbyterians alone sent over 2,000 emails in the last three weeks calling for a Faithful Farm Bill. To read more about PC(USA) advocacy for a comprehensive and faithful Farm Bill, visit our blog.

We will share additional legislative details as they are made available. In the meantime, members of Congress are heading home for the holidays. It's a great time for you to invite them to worship, to volunteer in your food pantries or feeding programs, and to continue to elevate the issues of hunger and ongoing need in your communities.  In a season when we are celebrating the coming a Savior to all people, the stark inequalities become startlingly apparent.  Make sure your elected officials understand the importance of protecting and strengthening nutrition programs and of completing a comprehensive, sustainable Farm Bill.

Farm Bill Deadline Approaches

As the year draws to a close, Congress has many must-pass items left on its plate.  Perhaps most pressing are the budget and the Farm Bill.  The House is scheduled to adjourn for the year next Friday, Dec. 13, but the Senate does not even return from Thanksgiving recess until next Monday, Dec. 6.  This leaves one week for them to wrap up the first session of the 113^th Congress. 

Of course, that it not to say that conversations are not ongoing.  Indeed, bicameral conference committees on both issues are in the midst of delicate and intense negotiations.  Leaving aside the question of the budget for now, for after all, Congress does have a few weeks into the New Year to come to agreement before the next manufactured fiscal crisis, the focus of the faith community has been on the Farm Bill.

Our nation’s food and farm policies, as embodied in the Farm Bill, impact people and communities from rural America to big cities to developing countries. In the Farm bill are provisions that authorize SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly Food Stamps), international food aid, conservation programs, initiatives that support new and minority farmers and ranchers, rural development programs, sustainable energy research, farm subsidies, crop insurance, just to name the most famous.  In all, the Farm Bill is a mixed bag of policies, some of which promote a more just food system and some that trap us in a vicious cycle of subsidized commodities and under-nutrition.  Nevertheless, the Farm Bill is must-pass, if for no other reason than that it authorizes SNAP and promotes environmentally sustainable practices on working farmlands.  

Write to your Members of Congress to urge a just and comprehensive Farm Bill this year.

In the current budget climate, which incorrectly functions from an assumption of scarcity, the Farm Bill’s limited resources must be effectively targeted where need is greatest. And people are hungry -- the U.S. and around the world. Programs and policies that curb hunger and malnutrition, support vibrant agricultural economies in rural communities, and promote the sustainable use of natural resources must be prioritized.  At the same time, we should be shifting away from investment in programs that subsidize factory farms and promote major commodities as the most viable crops for food and fuel.

Earlier in the year, serious threats were made to the funding of SNAP and on Nov. 1st, SNAP benefits were cut as a 2009 funding increase ran out.  Far from there being room to cut SNAP, most SNAP beneficiaries find that their benefits run out by the third or fourth week of the month and turn to private charity to fill gap.  If anything, we need to invest more in Food Stamp benefits.  SNAP is designed as a counter-cyclical program that expands to meet needs when the economy is bad and people lose income and become eligible.  When the jobs outlook and economy improve, it contracts as participants cycle off the program. 

So, Congress must reauthorize the SNAP program without the proposed cuts.  There is simply no way to achieve significant cuts without affecting benefits and nutrition education programs.  Write today to your members of Congress.

During the week before Thanksgiving, hundreds of Presbyterians, including our leaders Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons, Moderator Neal Presa, and Executive Director Linda Valentine, are taking the Food Stamp/SNAP Challenge.  The Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons reflects on his trip to the grocery store in this article and Linda Valentine allowed the News Service to publish her journal from that week here.  Days after their SNAP Challenge concluded, they sent this letter to Congress.

With the PC(USA)’s long-held convictions about food justice and fair food and farm policy, our interests in the Farm Bill, while very concerned with the nutrition programs, are also much broader that.  In a joint statement with interfaith partners, the PC(USA) called on Congress to pass a Farm Bill that:

• Protects and strengthens programs that reduce hunger and improve nutrition in the United States.
• Promotes investments and policies that strengthen rural communities and combat rural poverty.
• Provides a fair and effective farmer safety net that allows farmers in the U.S. and around the world to earn economically sustainable livelihoods.
• Strengthens policies and programs that promote conservation and protect creation from environmental degradation.
• Protects the dignity, health, and safety, of those responsible for working the land.
• Promotes research related to alternative, clean, and renewable forms of energy that do not negatively impact food prices or the environment.
• Safeguards and improves international food aid in ways that encourage local food security and improve the nutritional quality of food aid.

Write to your Members of Congress here.

To read more about the PC(USA) Office of Public Witness’ advocacy around the Farm Bill and SNAP, visit our farm bill blog.

Food Stamp Challenge Letter to Congress

As the festival of Thanksgiving approached, hundreds of Presbyterians, including our denominational leaders Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons, Moderator Neal Presa, and Executive Director Linda Valentine, were just concluding a week of doing the  SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge.  While living on a food stamp budget for just a week cannot come close to the struggles encountered by low-income families week after week and month after month, it does offer those who take the Challenge with a new perspective and greater understanding, especially in the the context of a national holiday devoted to thankfulness.


As part of the Food Stamp Challenge, Presbyterians engaged in all sorts of activities, from the Challenge itself, to anti-hunger education in church, to contacting their Members of Congress.

As part of their challenge, our leaders send the following letter to Congress.  In it, they urge Congress to refrain from cutting SNAP/Food Stamp benefits, which are already too low for many families, and instead to invest in a “comprehensive Farm Bill that ensures access to food for hungry people, provides an ample safety net targeted to those small and mid-sized farmers who most need it, builds up rural communities and their economies, and protects the integrity of God’s creation through robust conservation programs and sustainable agriculture.”

They conclude their letter:  "Our nation’s food and farm policies, as embodied in the Farm Bill, impact people and communities from rural America to big cities to developing countries. In the current budget climate, the Farm Bill’s limited resources must be effectively targeted where need is the greatest. And people are hungry."

The Congressional Conference Committee that is negotiating a final Farm Bill is still meeting this week!  Contact your Members of Congress to weigh in for a more just food system.

###

November 26, 2013

United States Congress

Washington, D.C.

Dear Members of Congress:

We write as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) concludes a week-long SNAP / Food Stamp Challenge in which we, the church’s national leaders, as well as hundreds of Presbyterians, chose to live on an average SNAP benefit, which nationally is about $30 per person per week. This practice is intended to raise awareness within our community about the dire food insecurity of many of our neighbors.  We realize, of course, that our engaging in this Challenge is a symbolic gesture, but we also believe that it has meaning and capacity for building awareness of the very real need in our communities.  We further recognize that our own reactions to living on SNAP benefit levels for a week – both psychological and physiological – cannot begin to approach the experience of a family that is relying for sustenance on these inadequate, and yet essential benefits.

Even as we learned this lesson, we acknowledge what privilege we have in bringing it to an end, in seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, in returning to our usual diets.  So as we enter this festival of Thanksgiving, we give thanks for food and for all the ways that healthy food is available to each of us.  And we give thanks for SNAP, which prevents so many Americans from falling into severe food insecurity. It is our prayer that we will change our food system so that no one in this wealthy nation will suffer hunger and that each and every person will have enough, not too little and not too much.

Through this SNAP Challenge, we learned in practice what we only previously knew intellectually – that far from needing to be cut, Food Stamp benefits are too low and need to be increased, especially in light of the recent Nov. 1^st benefit cliff. So, we urge you to refrain from cutting SNAP, and instead to invest in this program that provides only the most basic assistance to struggling people in some of their darkest hours. 

We further understand from partners in ministry that we, the churches that engage in ministries of charity and mercy cannot alone meet the overwhelming need created by cuts to federal safety net programs. Private charity needs public partnership in order to answer our call to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in prison. As earnestly as we try to fill gaps in services left by government spending cuts, we simply do not have the resources or capacity to respond to the growing and monumental need caused by a severe recession, anemic recovery, and systemic inequity.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) further has a long history of commitment to food justice and food system advocacy.  In a letter sent earlier this year, we called for a “comprehensive Farm Bill that ensures access to food for hungry people, provides an ample safety net targeted to those small and mid-sized farmers who most need it, builds up rural communities and their economies, and protects the integrity of God’s creation through robust conservation programs and sustainable agriculture.”

Our nation’s food and farm policies, as embodied in the Farm Bill, impact people and communities from rural America to big cities to developing countries. In the current budget climate, the Farm Bill’s limited resources must be effectively targeted where need is the greatest. And people are hungry. In particular, we urge you to protect SNAP from cuts that will only make it harder for people to make ends meet, that will increase food insecurity, that will leave children hungry.

And as we observe the national festival devoted to giving thanks, we are thankful for functioning government, for leaders who devote their lives to public service, and for your own service to our nation. 

Should you have any questions or wish to hear more about our reflections and learnings during the SNAP / Food Stamp Challenge, please contact our Office of Public Witness, Leslie Woods, Representative for Domestic Poverty and Environmental Issues, (202) 543-1126, leslie.woods@pcusa.org.

Sincerely,

Reverend Gradye Parsons

Stated Clerk of the General Assembly

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Reverend Dr. Neal Presa

Moderator of the 220^th General Assembly

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Linda Valentine

Executive Director, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)


For the Presbyterian News Service publication of this letter.