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09-27-01
The 2002 Farm Bill: Overview and Status
SUMMARY
Federal farm support, food assistance,
agricultural trade, marketing, and rural devel-
opment policies are governed by a variety of
separate laws. Although these laws may be
considered and reauthorized as free-standing
legislation, many of them are evaluated period-
ically, revised, and renewed through an omni-
bus, multi-year farm bill. The Federal Agricul-
ture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act of
1996 (P.L. 104-127) was the most recent
omnibus farm bill, and many of its provisions
expire in 2002.
Every omnibus farm bill spells out farm
income and commodity price support policy -
namely the methods and levels of support that
the federal government provides to agricultural
producers. However, farm bills also typically
include sections on agricultural trade and
foreign food aid, conservation and environ-
ment, domestic food assistance (primarily food
stamps), agricultural credit, rural development,
agricultural research and education, and
marketing-related programs. "Miscellaneous"
provisions dealing with subjects such as global
warming, food safety, and animal health and
welfare are often added.
The House Agriculture Committee held
extensive hearings this year, and marked up an
omnibus bill (H.R. 2646) on July 26-27, 2001.
The panel chairman has been seeking full
House action by this fall. The recent terrorist
attacks have added some uncertainty to this
schedule but not necessarily derailed the bill.
The committee bill would set a
commodity-based support policy through 2011
(for 10 years) that would: provide fixed pay-
ments, new counter-cyclical assistance tied to
target prices (a guaranteed per-bushel pricing
system which had been eliminated in 1996),
and marketing loans for grains, cotton, andoilseeds; continue planting flexibility with no
supply controls; extend with some modifica-
tions dairy, sugar, wool and mohair, and honey
supports; create a new peanut support pro-
gram similar to that for major row crops, and
terminate quotas; expand conservation pro-
gram funding; reauthorize agricultural export
and food aid programs; and include provisions
for research, nutrition (food stamps), credit,
and rural development.
The Senate Agriculture Committee also
has been holding farm bill hearings but has not
set a date to begin marking up legislation.
Many observers believe a final bill will not
clear Congress until 2002.
The congressional budget resolution
(H.Con.Res. 83), completed in May 2001,
reserves for FY2002-FY2011 an extra $73.5
billion in direct spending for farm and related
programs. This total is over and above the
approximately $95 billion projected for agri-
culture and related programs under a
current-law baseline for the same 10-year
period. The House committee bill would
utilize most of this amount. Federal budget re-
estimates in August indicated that future
surpluses, on which the farm bill was relying
for its increased funding, have shrunk consid-
erably from levels estimated in May. That,
combined with new spending needs to re-
sponse to the terrorist attacks, have raised
questions about available resources.
[The resolution also permits Congress to
increase agriculture spending by $5.5 billion in
FY2001. A bill providing these ad hoc funds
for 2001, H.R. 2213, passed the House and
Senate prior to the August recess and was
expected signed by the President on August
13, 2001 (P.L. 107-25).]Congressional Research Service + The Library of Congress MACRS
I B10085
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Becker, Geoffrey S. The 2002 Farm Bill: Overview and Status, report, September 27, 2001; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc811740/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.