|
Perdue's first budget
Story Date: 2/13/2018
| |
Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 2/12/18
President Donald Trump will unveil today his second budget request to Congress, including what he believes will be needed for the Department of Agriculture. But it's Secretary Sonny Perdue's first, which means it's a big day to glean where he stands on many important policy issues.
Y'all may recall that Perdue wasn't involved in last year's budget because it was released before the former Georgia governor was confirmed - timing that gave the ag sectors equal parts anxiety and relief. It was tough for many to see the Trump administration propose a roughly 20 percent cut to discretionary spending at USDA, as well as a big squeeze to crop insurance and SNAP. This year, the thinking is that with an Agriculture secretary in place, this budget will be better.
Aggies brace for cuts: House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway warned the audience at the National Cotton Council meeting in Fort Worth, Tex., over the weekend that the Trump blueprint would likely to again call for farm bill cuts, Agri-Pulse reported. Ted McKinney, USDA's top official on trade, also warned at the meeting that the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development Program could both be targeted for cuts again. McKinney argued that both programs are valuable, according to Agri-Pulse.
Crop insurance watch: It's a safe bet as soon as the White House document is released, a whole bunch of aggies will be heading straight to mention of crop insurance. Last year, the Trump administration proposed putting a $40,000 cap on crop insurance premium subsidies and limiting eligibility for crop insurance and commodity support programs to farmers making less than $500,000 in adjusted gross income. Those were ideas that would have save billions of dollars, but were deeply unpopular with broad swaths of the farm lobby.
Spotlight on SNAP: "The White House is expected to buy into congressional Republicans' plans for welfare reform, such as imposing work requirements for Medicaid recipients and new restrictions for food stamps," POLITICO's Sarah Ferris and Jennifer Scholtes reported last night. Details are still TBD, but we certainly expect some mention of imposing stricter work requirements on able-bodied adults without dependents, a population known as ABAWDs.
How realistic are big SNAP cuts?: Congress has shown no real interest in making states pay for a big chunk of food stamps (which the Trump administration proposed last year), but Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said Friday that he believed that calls for systemic changes to SNAP in the budget "deserve to be taken seriously." In other words, don't assume Congress will ignore such calls.
The purse check: While the president's budget is most certainly an important benchmark, particularly in terms of laying out an administration's priorities and policy, Congress spends all the money and lawmakers have so far shown no desire to stick to the Trump administration's requests on food and agriculture policy.
|
|
|
|
