House Agriculture Committee Approves Farm Bill Draft

The House Agriculture Committee approved the long-awaited 2024 Farm Bill earlier this morning on a vote of 33-21, although it doesn’t appear that the measure will go to the full House for a vote at least until after Labor Day. The measure, which received unanimous approval by committee Republicans along with four Democratic votes, represents the arduous effort by Chairman GT Thompson, R-PA, to move the bill forward during the past 18 months. Our statement thanked Thompson for his work to emphasize many issues important to NMPF’s members.

The measure includes key dairy priorities such as restoring the previous “higher of” Class I mover; requiring mandatory plant cost studies every two years; updating the Dairy Margin Coverage program’s production history calculation; maintaining robust funding for conservation programs; language ensuring protections for the use of common food names in global markets; and boosting funding for the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development Program.

Two measures we supported were offered as amendments during the markup, but then withdrawn, thus not appearing in the final version that passed. This includes an amendment authored by Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-SD, and supported by Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-NY, to modify the Rural Energy for America Program to add cooperatives with 2,500 or fewer employees as qualified entities, and an amendment from Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-WI, to increase the authorization for the Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives from $20 million to $36 million. Chairman Thompson agreed to work with the amendments’ sponsors to resolve issues and further vet both amendments with the goal of advancing them later in the process.

Democratic opposition to the bill mostly reflected concerns over the source of funding for certain priorities, including the use of Commodity Credit Corporation funds, adjustment or reallocation of conservation spending, and nutrition program funding, which differ from the Senate Democratic farm bill framework released two weeks ago. The committee yesterday rejected three amendments to alter the bill in those areas along party line votes.

Across the dome, Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member John Boozman, R-AR, reaffirmed this morning that he would soon be releasing his own farm bill framework. Congress needs to take action before the end of the year on farm policy. Some current farm bill programs expire on Sept. 30, although most of the commodity safety nets, including the Dairy Margin Coverage program, are funded through calendar year 2024.