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Leaders seek ways to fund farm bill updates

The co-director of Texas A&M’s Ag and Food Policy Center says the lack of money for updates in the commodities title of the new farm bill remains a challenge for lawmakers, but they are exploring all options.

Joe Outlaw says there’s been a significant amount of money taken out of the Commodity Credit Corporation for numerous programs, including climate-smart agriculture, and he says. “The Republicans are trying to capture some of those savings.”

And he says lawmakers are leaving no stone unturned trying to find an additional $20 to $50 billion needed for reference price updates. “Our job at our center, just like FAPRI is we work behind the scenes for them doing stuff, and I can tell you, I think this is fair to say, I think we’ve done more analysis since Christmas than before Christmas, and that includes the two years prior to the bill.”

Outlaw says passing a new farm bill will be difficult on both sides of the capitol and it’s going to take compromise to get a new farm bill, but a new farm bill might not happen this year.

Outlaw spoke to Brownfield during the Abner Womack Missouri Ag Outlook Conference in mid-Missouri Wednesday.