UPDATED — Stabenow's $20 Billion Farm Bill Solution?
A possible shift of nearly $20 billion from climate and tax credit law
Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) opened the door to shifting almost $20 billion from her party’s climate and tax credit law enacted last year to more general spending in the upcoming farm bill. Her comments came during a Bloomberg Government panel discussion. Republicans have long eyed the conservation money initially reserved for climate-smart farm conservation programs as a source for general spending. Stabenow has now signaled openness to moving some of these funds to the baseline portion of the farm bill, so long as they remain climate focused.
Work training provided through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) should be updated to help recipients most effectively, Stabenow, Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), and House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) signaled. While stricter work requirements for the farm bill are off the table, Stabenow suggests that states need to improve their SNAP employment and training programs.
Thompson is aiming for a markup of the House farm bill version in September. However, “anybody can get a farm bill done if you watered it down to the point of being meaningless,” he said. “We’re not doing that. We are setting a high bar.”
Stabenow couldn’t give a date for when the committee will release a draft. But “there’s always been a short-term extension,” she told Bloomberg, clarifying that “on time” for past farm bills hasn’t meant exactly on time. “That would not surprise me, but I feel very comfortable.”
— What’s really behind Stabenow’s possible around $20 billion ‘give’ in farm bill debate. Reconciliation rules dictated that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding all had to be spent by 2031. Anything not spent by 2031 dies. In a farm bill, Stabenow has no such restrictions. She can reshuffle the roughly $15 billion remaining from the IRA (for conservation) into the farm bill, and it will be added to the permanent baseline. Note that Stabenow also said, “remain climate focused.” Unless she frees it up for other purposes, it’s a ploy to make the IRA climate funding go on forever.
Stabenow, a master at farm bill negotiating, could leverage this to get other things she wants in a farm bill. And this could include moving some of the IRA funding to Title 1 rather than shift all of it to conservation (Title 2), but at this point that is purely speculation.
— Why is only $15 billion available when the IRA appropriated almost $20 billion? The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) only gives credit for rescinding funds which they anticipate will make it out the door. Because the Democrats didn't exempt the IRA funds from sequestration and they allocated money to programs that CBO doubts NRCS' ability to roll out, there is about $3 billion that has gone up in smoke and isn't available to be reprogrammed.
