Congressional Research Service Report
The 2014 Farm Bill: A Comparison of the Conference Agreement with the Senate-Passed (S. 954) and House-Passed (H.R. 2642) Bills by Ralph M. Chite
Congress periodically establishes agricultural and food policy in a multi-year, omnibus farm bill.
The 2008 farm bill governed policy for farm commodity support, horticulture, livestock, conservation, nutrition assistance, trade and international food aid, agricultural research, farm credit, rural development, bioenergy, and forestry. It originally expired in 2012, but the 112th Congress did not complete action and instead extended the law for one year (P.L. 112-240), leaving consideration of a new farm bill to the 113th Congress.
After nearly three years of deliberations, Congress completed action on a new omnibus farm bill when conferees reported a conference agreement on January 27, 2014 (the Agricultural Act of 2014, H.R. 2642/H.Rept. 113-333); the full House and Senate approved the conference agreement on January 29 and February 4, respectively. The President is expected to sign the measure.
Within the new 2014 farm bill are provisions that reshape the structure of farm commodity support, expand crop insurance coverage, consolidate conservation programs, reauthorize and revise nutrition assistance, and extend authority to appropriate funds for many U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs through FY2018, among many other provisions.
Under the conference agreement, farm support for traditional program crops is restructured by eliminating direct payments, the counter-cyclical price (CCP) program, and the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program. Much of the savings associated with the elimination of these farm programs would be used to offset the cost of revising the remaining programs, adding permanent disaster assistance, and enhancing crop insurance.
The 2014 farm bill reauthorizes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) through FY2018. The new measure restricts how a household's receipt of Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) benefits can affect SNAP benefits, accounting for most of the nutrition budget savings. Not adopted were House provisions to restrict categorical eligibility and change several time limit and work requirements.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that if the mandatory programs of the 2008 farm bill were to continue, they would cost $973 billion over the next 10 years (FY2014-FY2023), which served as a baseline budget for deliberations on the 2014 farm bill. The conference agreement on the 2014 farm bill is projected to spend $956 billion over the next 10 years, of which $756 billion is for nutrition assistance and $200 billion is for the agriculture portion. Compared to the baseline, the 2014 farm bill conference agreement reduces projected spending and the deficit by $16.6 billion (-1.7%) over 10 years. This projected 10-year savings is closer to the Senate-passed bill level of $17.8 billion than the projected House-passed savings of $51.8 billion.
Not included in the final conference agreement were a number of controversial miscellaneous provisions such as a House provision that would have prohibited states from imposing production or manufacturing standards on agricultural products from other states, and a House provision that would have repealed livestock and poultry marketing and competition rules proposed by USDA.