Passing farm bills continues to get harder, as evidenced by the struggles the House has gone through trying to pass the current bill, which they split into two parts, separating the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps, from the rest of the Farm Bill. Less noticed is the House's proposed repeal of permanent farm laws dating to the Great Depression.
"As John Gordley, a prominent agricultural lobbyist who once worked for Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) told the American Soybean Association (one of his clients), the problem with changing permanent laws is that if farmers don't like the changes they will be difficult to change again," Jerry Hagstrom writes for the National Journal. "But if permanent law were updated and SNAP were allowed to languish, the rest of agriculture, consumers, and the hungry would all suffer in the long run."
The history of permanent agricultural law "goes back to 1933, shortly after Franklin Roosevelt's election as president, when Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act, to try to deal with the surplus of commodities and other aspects of the Great Depression in rural America," Hagstrom writes. "The AAA included production controls that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 1936. That Court's decision, and recognition that soil erosion had created the Dust Bowl, led Congress to pass the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936."
"In 1938, Congress passed a new Agricultural Adjustment Act that incorporated the sections of the 1933 law that were unaffected by the Court ruling, the 1936 conservation law, and new commodity legislation that met the Court's standards," Hagstrom writes. "Portions of the 1938 AAA remain law, but in 1949 Congress passed a major new law that included high, fixed-support prices that would trigger subsidy payments when market prices fell below certain levels. The goal was to achieve parity between farm and nonfarm prices and incomes."
"Since then, whenever Congress has passed new farm legislation affecting commodities and dairy products, it has suspended the commodity title of the 1938 and 1949 laws for specific periods of time rather than simply amending a section of the 1938 or 1949 laws or passing new legislation and making it permanent," he writes. "Since the 1970s, the expiration of five-year farm bills and the need to pass a new bill have become triggers for enacting all kinds of changes and modernizations to Agriculture Department programs." (Read more)
"As John Gordley, a prominent agricultural lobbyist who once worked for Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) told the American Soybean Association (one of his clients), the problem with changing permanent laws is that if farmers don't like the changes they will be difficult to change again," Jerry Hagstrom writes for the National Journal. "But if permanent law were updated and SNAP were allowed to languish, the rest of agriculture, consumers, and the hungry would all suffer in the long run."
The history of permanent agricultural law "goes back to 1933, shortly after Franklin Roosevelt's election as president, when Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act, to try to deal with the surplus of commodities and other aspects of the Great Depression in rural America," Hagstrom writes. "The AAA included production controls that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 1936. That Court's decision, and recognition that soil erosion had created the Dust Bowl, led Congress to pass the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936."
"In 1938, Congress passed a new Agricultural Adjustment Act that incorporated the sections of the 1933 law that were unaffected by the Court ruling, the 1936 conservation law, and new commodity legislation that met the Court's standards," Hagstrom writes. "Portions of the 1938 AAA remain law, but in 1949 Congress passed a major new law that included high, fixed-support prices that would trigger subsidy payments when market prices fell below certain levels. The goal was to achieve parity between farm and nonfarm prices and incomes."
"Since then, whenever Congress has passed new farm legislation affecting commodities and dairy products, it has suspended the commodity title of the 1938 and 1949 laws for specific periods of time rather than simply amending a section of the 1938 or 1949 laws or passing new legislation and making it permanent," he writes. "Since the 1970s, the expiration of five-year farm bills and the need to pass a new bill have become triggers for enacting all kinds of changes and modernizations to Agriculture Department programs." (Read more)
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