Culp: Midterm Elections to Impact Farm Bill Content
Published: Friday, January 28, 2022
With the current farm bill set to expire in 2023, discussions are already underway regarding a new five-year legislation that will begin in 2024. According to an Indiana Farm Bureau official, the midterm elections later this year will have a major impact on who writes the next farm bill.
Kendell Culp, Indiana Farm Bureau vice president, provided an analysis of the farm bill debate during a luncheon last Wednesday at the Fort Wayne Farm Show.
He said the farm bill will be determined by the priorities of the president and respective chairpersons of both the House and Senate Ag Committees. Right now, Democrats control the presidency and the House of Representatives, and have an advantage in the evenly divided U.S. Senate.
Based on recent history, the party in control of the White House usually loses seats in Congress during the midterms. In the House, Republicans would need to pick up just five seats to become the majority party.
The Senate is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Of the 34 seats up for grabs, 20 are currently held by Republicans and only 14 by Democrats. This means Republicans have more seats to defend, putting the odds in favor of Democrats controlling the Senate.
If those scenarios play out, the result will be divided government.
"The future of farm bill discussions really depends on what happens in the midterm elections later this year," Culp said. "Farm bill discussions will start taking place later this year, but if there's a change (in majority for either chamber) that means there will be a change in leadership and then really those discussions start over again."
The Senate Ag Committee is chaired by Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and the House Ag Committee is chaired by David Scott (D-Georgia). Stabenow represents a state that grows a wide variety of specialty crops, while Scott's home state is a major producer of peanuts.
Culp said the new farm bill is likely to favor those commodities but only if Democrats maintain control of Congress.
However, if the GOP wins control of the House, the new chairman of the House Ag Committee would be Glenn "GT" Thompson, a dairy farmer from Pennsylvania. Culp said Thompson would make sure the new farm bill has a strong dairy program.
"If the House changes, 'GT' Thompson becomes the writer of the farm bill, a dairy farmer," Culp said. "Not that that's bad, but the focus is not on the commodities that we raise here in the Midwest or in the "I" states specifically."
Culp noted that the current farm bill, passed in 2018, reflects the influence of Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, who has retired. Roberts was a staunch defender of crop insurance.
The president's signature is also needed for the new farm bill to become law, and President Biden's priorities will influence the content of the next five-year measure. One of those priorities is addressing climate change and helping farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). He also wants to create more competition in the meat processing sector.
Culp, a crop and livestock farmer from Rensselaer, pointed out that agriculture's share of total GHG emissions is less than 10 percent.
"For less than 10 percent, it seems like we get a lot of publicity about all the emissions that we have in agriculture, especially animal agriculture," he said.
By contrast, the energy sector is responsible for 73 percent of GHG emissions.
Regarding the focus on meat processing, Culp called that "a positive thing."
"We need more options and more avenues to market our livestock," he said. "It's controlled by the big four right now. They (Biden and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack) are really honing in on that, and that could have a positive play in farm country."
Currently, three-fourths (76 percent) of farm bill funding is devoted to food and nutrition programs.
"I would also suggest that we could call this a food bill and not just a farm bill, and not just a climate bill," Culp said.
Agriculture represents just 2 percent of the federal budget, and less than 1 percent of that money actually goes to farmers. Two-thirds of the federal budget are used to pay down the national debt and fund entitlement programs like healthcare and Social Security.
Culp said one thing is certain as we look ahead to the next farm bill: each of the 12 farm bill titles—from conservation and crop insurance to rural development and commodity revenue supports—will compete for a limited share of money. No one gets everything they want. There is always some give and take.
"There's a lot of competition back and forth for those dollars and what gets prioritized," he said.
Culp said the process of adopting a new farm bill has traditionally been a bipartisan affair, but he has little hope that Congress will follow that tradition this time around.
"The agriculture committees at the federal level, and certainly at the state level, have always been seen as being collaborative and less political, and working for the good of the industry," Culp said. "I can tell you that we're shifting away from that. That's not a good thing. The atmosphere is just so partisan in Washington. It's just hard to reach consensus on anything."
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