Senate, House farm bills both have sops to the South; meat lobbies crack egg-rule deal

A new draft of the Senate farm bill gives concessions to pork and beef lobbies over proposed rules for housing livestock, and also includes target prices for rice and peanut producers in an attempt to please Southern Republicans, reports David Rogers for Politico. Meanwhile, the House draft includes its own sop to the South (cotton) and a new dairy program that will divide the Republican majority. (AP photo)

The bill would allow the Midwest Corn Belt to keep its costly crop-insurance program, Agricultural Risk Coverage, but with changes that could cut billions from the 10-year budget score calculated by the Congressional Budget Office, reports Rogers. The standard index will be changed from a five-month average market price to the 12-month average, reducing the cost to the government based on a typical marketing year. It will also "push ARC payments into the next fiscal year since the average 12-month marketing price for corn, for example, won’t be known until past Sept 30."

Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., wanted to include new egg-production standards agreed on by animal-welfare groups and United Egg Producers that "would require larger, enriched cages with perches, nesting boxes and improved manure systems," reports Amy Mayer for KCUR in Kansas City. Beef and pork lobbies, fearing the next steps might be new rules for housing cattle and hogs, fought the idea, and it was taken out of the Senate bill, Rogers reports.

Soon after the Senate bill was unveiled, House Republicans rolled out their draft measure. It includes "a major rewrite of commodity programs," including a "milk supply management program that has been harshly criticized in the past by Speaker John Boehner." The bill also includes a two-year phaseout of cotton producers' direct payments, which both bills would eliminate for other crops, Rogers notes.

The main financial difference in the bills is the House's proposed $20.5 billion savings by tightening eligibility rules for food stamps, nearly 25 percent more than last year's bill (which did not pass) and much more than the $4 billion mark of the Senate bill. Erik Wasson of The Hill reports that concern centers on the rule that allows people getting federal heating assistance to also receive food stamps.

UPDATE, May 13: "The atmosphere on Capitol Hill for the farm bill suddenly seems to be full speed ahead," unlike last year, Jerry Hagstrom reports for National Journal. "The reason the bills are moving seems to be that each chamber has gotten tired of the farm bill hanging on and has something more interesting to move on to." Hagstrom theorizes that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to get it over with "since exit polls showed that President Obama’s election percentage in rural America went from 50 percent in 2008 to 41 percent in 2012," and "House Republicans want to move on to the periodic reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission," so it can "restrict the CFTC’s ability to finalize some of the regulations the agency has proposed" under the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law. (Read more)