Budgeting a farm bill with a divided Congress could mean an extension

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Budgeting a farm bill with a divided Congress could mean an extension

A farm finance expert says an extension of the 2023 Farm Bill is likely as new lawmakers face rising costs.

Curt Covington is with an AgAmerica lender.

“When the SNAP program is 78 percent of the entire budget, I don’t see how you can take anything out of any of the other titles, including conservation, and make this budget work,” he says.

Covington expects new lawmakers to question why the commodity budget needs to increase if farmers are seeing near-record farm incomes.

“And the answer is that while farm incomes are close to an all-time high, margins on these crops continue to decline due to higher input costs,” he explains.

He told Brownfield that the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that nutrition funding could cost $1.1 trillion, and partisan differences will likely have debate until late next year.