Agricultural committee leaders in the House and Senate are pushing for draft Farm Bill legislation to be released by the end of March. The president’s FY 2019 budget proposal urged Congress to consider significant changes to the Farm Bill, some of which may make its way into initial drafts.
These changes include:
- Reducing SNAP by $214 billion over the next 10 years;
- Making programmatic changes to SNAP, replacing some benefits with food packages and strengthening work requirements;
- Limiting farm subsidies to those with an income of $500,000 or less;
- Reducing the average premium subsidy for crop insurance to 48 percent; and
- Cutting the conservation stewardship program.
We could also see the separation of SNAP from the Farm Bill, which Democrats and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue have previously spoken against.