The Indiana Farm Bureau shared some insights Wednesday into the Farm Bill, a package of legislation passed once every five years.
The bill covers a wide range of issues, from rural development to crop insurance and even the SNAP program.
Brantley Seifers, the bureau’s National Affairs Coordinator, said the 2023 Farm Bill has yet to have any text written, which is unusual.
“Going into August, you'd hope to have bill text to be reading through and over on such a large bill,” he said.
Seifers also said the conversations around the 2023 Farm Bill have focused largely on how much money is to be allocated towards different programs.
“The argument’s really not about the changes that are going to go into them,” he said. “It's going to be about the cost that goes into them. How big of that piece of pie does that program get? Right now we're looking at the first trillion dollar Farm Bill, and it's actually $1.5 trillion. So it's a very large bill.”
According to Seifers, the SNAP program makes up about 80 to 85 percent of the total bill.
Comparing the 2023 Farm Bill to the 2018 Farm Bill, which was titled the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, Seifers said many farmers hope the crop insurance title remains the same.
“Our members like the 2018 Farm Bill crop insurance title, we just need to make sure that we do maintain the flexibility that they have,” he said. “So no major changes is actually a good thing.”
The current Farm Bill expires Sept. 30. Lawmakers are expecting an extension in order to sign the bill into law before the end of the year.
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