US House Ag Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson and others on the committee say Congressional Budget Office figures are complicating the job of writing the next new farm bill.
Ahead of enactment of the Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal, Thompson told a republican party leadership press call the CBO was “off the mark” in predicting the deal will hike food stamp spending, which makes up around 80% of the cost of the farm bill.
“Absolutely, they got it wrong, and it was a factor of double-counting. These individuals, veterans, the homeless and those aging out of foster youth, they’re largely already counted—they’re already eligible.”
South Dakota US Representative Dusty Johnson chairs the Commodity Markets panel.
“Work requirements clearly save money. And I would again point you to the CBO 2022 study, that indicated that work requirements absolutely save substantial federal dollars.”
The CBO now says the debt deal adds over $2 billion and 78,000 recipients to SNAP— a possible limiting factor that could squeeze funds available for commodities. But, Thompson says the CBO was wrong in its farm bill baseline for one commodity—cotton.
“There was an apology, I received, from the CBO director, that their analysts got it wrong, and obviously, have promised a correction, as we move closer to moving the bill—that’ll be a billion dollars that’ll be added to the baseline, which will be more helpful for us, with doing the farm bill this fall.”
But will CBO correct itself on SNAP, if proven wrong? The answer could help decide funding to fix reference prices and improve crop insurance.
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