Page 21 - Farm Bill Series_The 7 Things You Should Know

But the dairy price support program itself was set to expire at the end of 2012 and revert to
what’s known as “permanent law.” These provisions were included in the 1938 and 1949 farm
bills and serve as a reminder that – if a new farm bill is not passed – significantly higher
government price supports would kick in for most commodities.

“It would also leave out any mandatory coverage for soybeans and other oilseeds as well as
peanuts and sugar,” Hoefner noted in a blog post. “In other words, it is widely considered so
extremely
anachronistic as to
be unworkable.”

Over the next
couple of months,
House and Senate
leaders tried to
figure out a path
forward on the farm
bill.

In early December
2012, Lucas
suggested that the
bill might be able to
advance as part of a
possible last-
minute deficit
reduction
agreement between
“the powers that
be,” or President Obama and House Speaker Boehner. He talked about a transition bill that some
confused with an extension of current law.

But Stabenow said she would not support an extension of the current farm bill.

“We’re not going to do an extension, we’re not going to kick the can down the road,” she
said.

By December, worries about reverting to permanent law were mounting. And then the headlines
started to emerge in major newspapers, warning that milk prices were about to double. Vilsack
predicted the price of milk could rise to $6 per gallon, just as income taxes for almost all
Americans were scheduled to increase.

Talks of extending the 2008 farm bill heat up

Both Stabenow and Lucas seemed confident that House and Senate leadership would accept their
offers to extend the 2008 farm bill as part of the negotiations over the so-called “fiscal cliff,” and
avoid what became known as the “dairy cliff.” They worked tirelessly over the last weeks of

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