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Draft Farm Bill release expected Friday

The heads of the Senate Ag Committee say their draft farm bill will be released today with committee markup scheduled for next Wednesday.

Chairman Pat Roberts and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow formally announced the timeline Thursday during a briefing with both touting its bipartisan balance.

The proposal is expected to leave the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program as is and make slight improvements to the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) program. A portion of a bipartisan bill from Senators John Thune of South Dakota and Sherrod Brown of Ohio to modify the ARC payment calculation is also expected to be included.

Ohio Corn and Wheat Association’s John Torres tells Brownfield the Thune/Brown ARC-II Bill maintains the integrity of ARC and PLC programs while using information from the Risk Management Agency (RMA) in place of NASS.  “What Thune and Brown are offering up is that the data set used to prioritize payments in ARC will be RMA, that’s something that our farmers have been asking for for quite some time.”

The Conservation Reserve Program would be expanded to 25 million acres in the Senate proposal, slightly less than the House’s 29-million-acre cap.

The draft will also not expand work requirements for the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program.

AUDIO: Interview with John Torres

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