Page 31 - Farm Bill Series_The 7 Things You Should Know

MILC participation, or 2) a stand-alone margin insurance program as their elected safety net,
with margin insurance from $4 to $6.50 per hundredweight.

Staff members were going back and forth with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to score
various options that might lead to a compromise.
Throughout this time, the four principals also had to keep in mind how to win at least 218 votes
in the House, 60 votes in the Senate and President Obama’s signature.

President Obama consistently called on Congress to pass a new farm bill. But other than his
budget proposals, he had offered few specifics about what should or should not be in the final
package. But in late November as the conferees were deliberating, the White House offered
a new report, making a strong defense for continuation of SNAP as “one of the main
anchors of the social safety net . . . and providing economic benefits to communities.”

The report also offered sharp criticism of the SNAP cuts included in the House version of the
farm bill, noting that: “According to CBO estimates, the House bill would mean approximately
3.8 million low-income people in 2014 – and an average of nearly 3 million people each year
over the coming decade – would lose SNAP benefits, among other damaging changes.”

The White House had been somewhat supportive of the smaller Senate cuts. But in releasing the
report, White House National Economic Advisor Gene Sperling seemed to raise a red veto
flag on any compromise that exceeded the Senate’s $4 billion level, calling the House farm
bill, with almost $40 billion in SNAP cuts, “harsh and unacceptable.”

Still, the conferees worked away to whittle down the differences. On Dec. 4, Stabenow and
Cochran sat down with Lucas and Peterson and came out of the meeting together smiling. They
said they discussed every title of the bill and narrowed many differences.

Reporters started to compare the meetings with the secrecy surrounding the naming of a new
Pope in the Vatican. Every day, they’d joke about a cloud of white smoke signaling that an
agreement had finally been reached. But the waiting continued.

By Jan. 10, 2014, rumors were flying that a deal had finally been agreed to. Both Stabenow and
Lucas seemed a bit dour on a day that many stakeholders and lawmakers thought might be “the
day” for a deal announcement.

“There’s no white smoke yet,” Stabenow said. “It’s a big, complicated bill.” Lucas said it
was “highly unlikely” that conferees would announce a framework for a bill that week.
“There are still lots of conversations.”

At a press conference later that day, Boehner took another swipe at the proposed dairy policy,
which involved a margin insurance program with a mix of supply management tools. That
approach, which had been pushed hard by Peterson, aimed to help limit over-production while
keeping insurance costs down.

In strong opposition, Boehner and many House members argued the approach would lead to
unfair market intervention and higher milk prices. Boehner said dairy producers should have
access to margin insurance, but without production limits.

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