{ "id": "R45525", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R45525", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 593966, "date": "2019-02-22", "retrieved": "2019-04-17T14:14:52.286222", "title": "The 2018 Farm Bill (P.L. 115-334): Summary and Side-by-Side Comparison", "summary": "Congress sets national food and agriculture policy through periodic omnibus farm bills that address a broad range of farm and food programs and policies. The 115th Congress established the direction of farm and food policy for five years through 2023 by enacting the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, which the President signed into law on December 20, 2018, as P.L. 115-334. \nThe Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has scored the cost of programs with mandatory spending\u2014such as nutrition programs, commodity support programs, major conservation programs, and crop insurance\u2014in the enacted 2018 farm bill at $867 billion over a 10-year budget window of FY2019-FY2028. This amount is budget neutral compared with CBO\u2019s baseline scenario of an extension of 2014 farm bill (P.L. 113-79) programs with no changes. CBO estimates that over the five-year life of the law (FY2019-FY2023), outlays will amount to $428 billion, or $1.8 billion above the baseline scenario. In general, the new law largely extends many major programs through FY2023, thereby providing an overlay of continuity with the existing framework of agriculture and nutrition programs even as it modifies numerous programs, alters the amount and type of program funding that certain programs receive, and exercises discretion not to reauthorize some others. \nThe enacted 2018 farm bill extends agricultural commodity support programs largely along existing lines while modifying them in various ways. For instance, producers acquire greater flexibility, compared with prior law, to switch between the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) revenue support programs. Producers may update program yields that factor into payments under PLC, while a newly added escalator could raise a commodity\u2019s reference price under the program. The law also makes several modifications to ARC, including introducing a trend-adjusted yield that has the potential to raise ARC revenue guarantees for producers. Other changes include an increase in marketing assistance loan rates for a number of crops and revising the definition of family farm to include nephews, nieces, and cousins, making these individuals eligible for farm program payments. The law modifies dairy programs, including renaming the Margin Protection Program as Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) and revising it to expand the margin protection between milk prices and feed costs that milk producers may purchase, as well as lowering the cost of this coverage for the first 5 million pounds of milk produced. Loan rates under the sugar program are increased. \nThe Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the largest domestic nutrition assistance program, is reauthorized through FY2023. The law amends SNAP in a number of ways, including making changes to policies intended to reduced errors and fraud in SNAP, limiting fees that electronic benefit transfer processors may charge, and requiring nationwide online acceptance of SNAP benefits. Not included in the enacted bill are provisions in the House-passed bill that would have expanded work requirements and SNAP employment and training programs. The enacted bill does make certain modifications to these elements of the program, such as expanding the employment and training activities that a state may provide. Beyond SNAP, the law amends programs that distribute U.S. Department of Agriculture foods to low-income households, and it increases funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). \nThe enacted farm bill addresses agricultural conservation on several fronts. For one, it reauthorizes the two largest working lands programs\u2014the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)\u2014while reducing the overall funding allocated for these two programs. It also reauthorizes the primary land retirement program, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), allowing it to expand from a maximum of 24 million acres in FY2019 to 27 million acres in FY2023 while offsetting the added cost of any enrollment increase through lower payments to participants. The law also expands grazing and commercial uses on CRP acres and provides options for new and limited resource producers for transitioning CRP land. \nThe enacted 2018 farm bill addresses a range of issues of importance to rural America, including combatting substance abuse by prioritizing assistance under certain programs, by expanding broadband access and providing additional authorized appropriations to that end and by amending the definition of rural by excluding certain groups of individuals from population-based criteria. The credit title increases the maximum loan amount for guaranteed loans, and these amounts are adjusted for inflation thereafter. The ceiling for direct loans is also raised, among other changes.\nAmong the broad and diverse array of other provisions in the law are provisions intended to facilitate the commercial cultivation, processing, and marketing of hemp. Among these, hemp with low levels of the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana is excluded from the statutory definition of marijuana. The law creates a new hemp program under USDA oversight and makes hemp an eligible crop under the federal crop insurance program. The enacted 2018 farm bill also strengthens the National Organic Program and increases funding for organic agricultural research. \nWithin the Miscellaneous title, the livestock industry is the object of several initiatives to guard against disease outbreaks and strengthen the response to such events. These include the establishment of the National Animal Disease Preparedness Response Program and the National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank. The law also addresses USDA organizational changes in recent years, requiring USDA to reestablish the position of Under Secretary for Rural Development and creating a Rural Health Liaison, among other changes. Among its provisions, the Forestry title addresses the accumulation of biomass in many forests and the consequent risk of wildfires by establishing, reauthorizing, and modifying various assistance programs to promote wood use and biomass removal. \nWith these programs, policies, and initiatives codified into law, the job that remains is for USDA, other federal agencies, and entities designated by the enacted farm law to implement the will of Congress through regulatory actions and other administrative measures. As implementation of the farm law proceeds, Congress may find it prudent to monitor this process and to provide direction and feedback through the exercise of its oversight responsibilities.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/R45525", "sha1": "757f806f3ad4f34c0c0135aac75f53503735f558", "filename": "files/20190222_R45525_757f806f3ad4f34c0c0135aac75f53503735f558.html", "images": { "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45525_files&id=/1.png": "files/20190222_R45525_images_dff4103dceaf2ecc5da5febe207c90aaa654403c.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45525_files&id=/2.png": "files/20190222_R45525_images_99249fd28595372b57a8a21c51c57d8c6dfe89f9.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45525_files&id=/0.png": "files/20190222_R45525_images_b30cfd309abd9a61ac5d029d0ded8d9a4ff3251c.png" } }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R45525", "sha1": "2505ddecf39c9258f5f2dcbc7d585961b05f0b2e", "filename": "files/20190222_R45525_2505ddecf39c9258f5f2dcbc7d585961b05f0b2e.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4770, "name": "Conservation & Natural Resources" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4830, "name": "Agriculture Budget & Appropriations" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4856, "name": "Nutrition Programs & Policies" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4919, "name": "Farm Support" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Agricultural Policy", "Appropriations", "Domestic Social Policy", "Economic Policy", "Energy Policy", "Environmental Policy", "Foreign Affairs", "Health Policy", "Industry and Trade", "Science and Technology Policy" ] }