PIERRE, S.D. (MITCHELLNOW) The House Agriculture Committee’s farm bill would boost the federal budget deficit by $33 billion over 10 years, according to an official cost estimate released Friday by the Congressional Budget Office. The funding gap could force House Republican leaders to either direct the CBO to change its budget estimate or to modify the legislation. At issue is a provision in the bill intended to suspend USDA’s use of section 5 under its Commodity Credit Corporation spending authority.
The CBO estimated the bill would increase the cost of commodity programs by $43.4 billion over the same period. Other cuts in the bill lower the bill’s net cost increase to $33 billion.
The biggest boost in spending would be in the commodity title where Price Loss Coverage (PLC) would increase in spending $34.9 billion from 2024 to 2033 and Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) would go up $9.8 billion. Those higher costs would be offset by a freeze in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ‘Thrifty Food Plan’ that CBO scores as $29.4 billion in savings.
The cost of the federal crop insurance program is increased by $3.5 billion, in part by increasing premium subsidies for the Supplemental Coverage Option. Some $1.5 billion of that increase would come from increased administrative and operating funding for the insurance industry. The bill would bring $13.2 billion in Inflation Reduction Act conservation funding into the bill, which would have the effect of permanently increasing funding levels for several other conservation programs.