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Time Runs Out on Deficit Reduction Plans

Agricultural leaders had been working on a proposal to include $23 billion in potential savings as part of the larger deficit reduction plan, but leaders say those plans are now abandoned as the supercommittee admitted defeat Nov. 21 in reaching an agreement.

A joint statement from House Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Frank Lucas, R, Okla., and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D, Mich., said the supercommittee's failure to reach a deal on an overall deficit reduction package "effectively ends" the bipartisan proposal for the $23 billion in farm program savings.

"We are pleased we were able to work in a bipartisan way with committee members and agriculture stakeholders to generate sound ideas to cut spending by tens of billions while maintaining key priorities to grow the country's agriculture economy," the two said in the statement. "We will continue the process of reauthorizing the farm bill in the coming months, and will do so with the same bipartisan spirit that has historically defined the work of our committees."

With no deal from the supercommittee, sequestration will require $1.2 trillion spending cuts be split evenly between defense spending and the remaining domestic programs, but not until 2013. President Barack Obama has threatened to veto any attempts to water down the budget cut attempts.

For agriculture, the sequestration could require $14 to $15 billion in cuts, and sources indicate the farm bill baseline updated each January and finalized in March will include the sequestration cuts.

House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D, Minn., thinks the agreement reached by the agriculture committees will jump start the farm bill process next year.

"You know, we got it done. We're the only committee that did it, and we did it on a bipartisan and bicameral basis," says Peterson, "Now we'll have to try to figure out some other way between now and the end for the year, I still think they may come up with something, but we'll see, otherwise, we'll have to take what we've done and use as a starting place to get to work next year on getting the farm bill done."

Mark Maslyn, executive director of public policy at the American Farm Bureau Federation, said there are a lot of creative people in Congress and a lot of scenarios that haven't been thought of that could play out.

For now, the deficit reduction process being worked on by the supercommittee is dead, but it remains to be seen whether Congress will turn back to the "Gang of Six" or resurrect the Simpson-Bowles plan for reducing the soaring national debt. "Clearly, something has to be done to deal with the deficit and the challenges we've got," Maslyn says. "I think we're going to be operating under some restrained resources for years to come."

By including the farm bill within the deficit reduction plan, it did allow for the opportunity to bring up farm spending in a situation where no amendments could be added. Maslyn notes that under the regular order of business the farm bill poses very difficult challenges from a budgetary and philosophical standpoint. This supercommittee approach to managing farm spending had been dubbed the "secret farm bill."

Earlier in November Peterson expressed doubts and concerns about the House passing a farm bill he could support, or that could be conferenced with the Senate.

The current farm bill expires Sept. 30, 2012. Most sources indicate Congress will push forward in 2012 to tackle farm bill reauthorization. "It's not unheard of for Congress to have trouble getting farm bills across the finish line," notes Sara Hopper, agricultural policy director at the Environmental Defense Fund.

The current farm bill stalled in the Senate in late 2007 before finally being enacted in 2008 and with few other legislative vehicles moving in the election year, the farm bill could be a prime target for amendments and political posturing.

"In the end I think there will be a good faith effort to do a bill in 2012. Whether we end up needing a short-term extension of the current bill, we'll have to wait and see," Hopper says.