Farm Bill Primer: What Is the Farm Bill? (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Revised Feb. 29, 2024 |
| Report Number |
IF12047 |
| Report Type |
In Focus |
| Authors |
Renée Johnson, Jim Monke |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
The farm bill is an omnibus, multiyear law that governs an
array of agricultural and food programs. It provides an
opportunity for policymakers to comprehensively and
periodically address agricultural and food issues. In
addition to developing and enacting farm legislation,
Congress is involved in overseeing its implementation. The
farm bill typically is renewed about every five years. Since
the 1930s, Congress has enacted 18 farm bills.
Farm bills traditionally have focused on farm commodity
program support for a handful of staple commodities -
corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, dairy, and
sugar. Farm bills have become increasingly expansive in
nature since 1973, when a nutrition title was first included.
Other prominent additions since then include horticulture
and bioenergy titles and expansion of conservation,
research, and rural development titles.
Without reauthorization, some farm bill programs expire,
such as the nutrition assistance and farm commodity
support programs. Other programs have permanent
authority and do not need reauthorization (e.g., crop
insurance) and are included in a farm bill to make policy
changes or achieve budgetary goals. The farm bill extends
authorizations of discretionary programs. The farm bill also
suspends long-abandoned permanent laws for certain farm
commodity programs from the 1940s that used supply
controls and price regimes that would be costly if restored.
The omnibus nature of the farm bill can create broad
coalitions of support among sometimes conflicting interests
for policies that individually might have greater difficulty
achieving majority support in the legislative process. In
recent years, more stakeholders have become involved in
the debate on farm bills, including national farm groups;
commodity associations; state organizations; nutrition and
public health officials; and advocacy groups representing
conservation, recreation, rural development, faith-based
interests, local food systems, and organic production. These
factors can contribute to increased interest in the allocation
of funds provided in a farm bill.
