MINORITY BLOG

Key Takeaways Congress has a historic opportunity to make a meaningful and permanent increase in funding for locally-led conservation, natural resource preservation, and wildlife habitat needs by moving Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) dollars into a bipartisan farm bill. Over the next 25 years this additional investment in conservation spending...

Key Takeaways In his latest effort to avoid responsibility for the historic inflation in food and grocery prices, President Biden tried to lay the blame at the feet of food companies-- accusing them of a practice called “shrinkflation” -- during his State of the Union Address. This follows a similar effort in 2021 to blame inflation on food...

Key Takeaways The Congressional Budget Office’s February 2024 baseline for USDA Mandatory Farm Programs and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program revealed projected outlays for farm bill-related programs at $1.46 trillion over the 10-year window from fiscal years 2025 to 2034 – down 3.5% from the previous 10-year baseline of $1.5...

Key Takeaways At the dismay of Congress, members of state and national farm organizations, and countless other stakeholders, USDA fundamentally altered the methodology for delivering ad hoc disaster assistance to farmers impacted by catastrophic weather events. By implementing a progressive payment factor, and selectively reimbursing farmer-paid...

Ranking Member Boozman wrote an opinion piece outlining how Congress can strengthen the farm safety net that ran in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette over the holiday break. In his piece, Ranking Member Boozman says he is committed to using the one-year extension of the current Farm Bill to get the next one done right to ensure our farmers have the...

Key Takeaways USDA’s self-imposed November 30 deadline on the Time-Limited Trial for New Swine Inspection System plants is rapidly approaching and the department has yet to establish a permanent solution or issue an extension of the current Time-Limited Trial that allows certain pork processing plants to operate at increased line speeds to...

Key Takeaways Farm-related conservation resources in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are unlikely to benefit all farmers as a recent review of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program financial obligations revealed that fewer than half of the currently funded projects would meet the climate-smart...

Key Takeaways Highlighting the volatility inherent in farming and farm income, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) most recent farm income forecast projects U.S. net farm income, a broad measure of farm profitability to plummet by $42 billion in 2023 to $141 billion, resulting in a 23% income drop compared to the year prior. If realized,...

Key Takeaways A mandatory base acre update would force farmers to update their farm’s base acres to reflect a more recent snapshot of their planting history. The economic effects are significant and are conservatively estimated to result in an overall loss of $2 billion to farmers and rural communities and economies due to a decline in farm...

Key Takeaways USDA’s first 2024 cost-of-production forecast for major field crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, and peanuts, among others, reveals that input costs are expected to remain elevated into the next growing season, at the third-highest level of all-time, and only slightly lower than the record-high reached in 2022. While...

Ranking Member Boozman has been sharing his perspectives on the farm safety net, rural infrastructure and school meal guidelines in opinion sections recently. Here’s a rundown: The editorial board of Washington Post published a piece filled with inaccurate claims about the farm safety net. The paper published Ranking Member Boozman’s...

Key Takeaways The Congressional Budget Office’s highly anticipated May 2023 baseline is widely expected to be the 2023 Farm Bill scoring baseline – meaning any proposed policy modifications and the impact on the U.S. deficit will [likely] be measured against this baseline. CBO’s May baseline confirms that the 2023 Farm Bill, upon enactment, could...

Key Takeaways Farm production expenses were projected to be record-high in 2023 at nearly $500 billion, up 28% or $87 billion under this administration. While diesel fuel and fertilizer prices have fallen slightly from their record highs one year ago, the prices for fuel and fertilizers remain 60% to 130% higher than their January 2021...

Ranking Member John Boozman joined Agri-Pulse Newsmakers to discuss where we stand with the 2023 Farm Bill. Key takeaways: On USDA’s flawed Thrifty Food Program reevaluation “That was supposed to be done in a revenue neutral way. That’s what Congress assumed looking at the CBO score which said zero. Congressional Budget Office...