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A closer look at the Senate Ag Committee’s budget reconciliation bill

The CEO of the American Soybean Association says the farm program provisions included in the U.S. Senate Ag Committee’s recently released budget reconciliation bill are similar to the U.S. House.

Stephen Censky tells Brownfield there are substantial increases in reference prices and also “crop insurance, conservation funding by bringing some of the Inflation Reduction Act money into the baseline, doubling of MAP and FMD and funding to address livestock diseases/animal health.”

Censky says the bill would increase reference prices for U.S. soybeans to $10.

“We’d like it to be more, but it’s a far cry better than the $8 we have right now. The reference price updates are important and necessary; we’re glad they’ve done that.”

The Senate Ag Committee has also proposed sharing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program costs with states, but “it scales back some of the changes in the SNAP program and the cost sharing there. I think senators have recieved a lot of pushback from states.” 

The nutrition program adjustments are getting mixed reviews by committee leaders.

Senate Ag Committee Chairman John Boozman said the bill takes a commonsense approach to reforming SNAP, but Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar said SNAP cuts are devastating to families in need and puts a major financial burden onto states.

In the next 10 days, Senate Ag Committee staff will review the bill, the bill gets a “Byrd bath” and then, it goes on to the Senate Budget Committee before being considered by the full U.S. Senate. The U.S. Senate must follow the Byrd rule in the budget reconciliation process.

Censky says it remains to be seen if the U.S. Senate can pass reconciliation by President Trump’s Independence Day deadline, but he’s optimistic.

“Even though there are disagreements within the Republican caucus, in conferences. In the end, I think they will come together and there will be a budget reconciliation bill.”

And he says even if the reconciliation package gets across the finish line, there are other parts of the farm bill that need to be addressed.

“There are other important provisions that they authorize or reauthorize that we would like them to pass as part of a farm bill and we’ll see, hopefully, the leaders will come back and get that done.”

Hear the interview with Censky.