Posted November 18, 2013
A report released by the Congressional Budget Office
(CBO) shows that Congress could save around $130 billion over 10 years from
reductions or changes to several agriculture programs, according to an
Agri-Pulse article available here.
The report is available here.
The CBO report lists 103 options for decreasing federal
spending or increasing federal revenue in six areas within the agricultural
sector, including conservation, crop insurance, direct payments, SNAP (commonly
known as “food stamps”), school lunches, and the Forest Service.
Conservation: Prohibiting new enrollment in the
Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) could reduce federal spending by $8
billion. Prohibiting new and
reenrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) could reduce spending by
$5 billion and CRP land would likely drop to 10 million acres.
Crop insurance: Lowering the federal government’s
subsidy of crop insurance from 60 percent to 40 percent could save $27 billion.
Direct payments: Eliminating direct payments could reduce
overall spending by $25 billion.
SNAP: Various changes could save $50 billion.
School Lunches: Eliminating subsidies for school meals
served to students from households with income greater than 185 percent of the
federal poverty level could reduce spending by $10 billion.
Forest Service: Eliminating the Forest Service’s
program in Forest and Rangeland Research and in State and Private Forestry
could save $5 billion.
These issues and other are currently being considered
by the farm bill conference. The goal of
the conference is to negotiate a deal on the 2013 Farm Bill that can pass both
the House and the Senate.
For more information on farm bills, please visit the
National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
