Farm bill quietly expired Monday

The one-year extension of the 2008 farm bill expired Monday in the midst of a government shutdown, marking the first day of a lapse in the bill since it was extended last year.

The U.S. House of Representatives last weekend passed a resolution reinserting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program into a larger version of the farm bill, which includes rural development and commodities, according to Garret Hawkins, director of national legislative programs for the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation. The bill then will have to go through procedural motions, the House has to appoint conferees, and the Senate has to reappoint conferees and pass legislation.

"The bill is back in one piece from the House's perspective," he said. Now that bills are out of the House and Senate, "we hope that they go in and finish the process," he said.

The deadline to avert a partial government shutdown also passed Monday, leaving thousands of federal workers idled and most nonessential government services halted for the first time in nearly two decades.

"Farm Bureau members are deeply concerned over the political challenges that are making it next to impossible for Congress to reach a compromise on important legislation, while restoring fiscal order and setting a responsible course to get the federal budget back on track," said American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman.

"There's no reason why the conference committee can't be working while Congress deals with these larger issues," Hawkins said. "Our point is, Congress should be able to multitask."

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt in a written statement said he is hopeful lawmakers will conference and work toward a long-term farm bill because farm families need economic certainty.

Immediate effects of a farm-bill lapse include a loss of funding for programs such as the Market Access Program, which exporters use to promote American commodities overseas, and there will be no new enrollments in the Conservation Reserve Program, Hawkins said.

Farmers "won't see any hiccups" until the first of the year, he said.

On Jan. 1, the USDA will begin taking steps to revert current laws back to an older law that has been on the books since the Depression era, Hawkins said. The price of commodities such as milk will increase. Soybeans and sugars are examples of those commodities not included in permanent law, and therefore not in the "safety net" of commodity pricing, he said.

"That's when you start theorizing what prices could be," he said.

Congress last year extended the farm bill from 2008 for one year.

"Unfortunately, farm families find themselves in the same position they were in last year when the farm bill extension expired," said U.S. Rep. Jason Smith in a statement. "If we do not pass a farm bill soon, consumers will see much higher groceries prices, first with dairy products. I am hopeful that once we end the government shutdown, the House and Senate can go to conference and work out their differences."

The Monday deadline "was the hammer," Hawkins said, and the day when the programs technically expired. He said last year's lapse in the farm bill was not catastrophic, but "farmers still like to have time to plan."

Even after the bill passes Congress, rules have to be written and farmers have to learn about those rules.

"That Sept. 30 deadline is important for a reason," he said, because the longer the lapse, the longer it takes to get the programs in place.

"The delay does hurt from a planning perspective," Hawkins said.

The longer the wait before the farm bill is extended or rewritten also makes it more likely the bill will bleed into other issues, particularly those regarding the debt ceiling, Hawkins said.

Other items on Congress' to-do list include a water resources development bill, passing a continuing resolution and the possibility of tax reform. The farm bill does not have to be on that to-do list, he said.

"This doesn't have to be one of the heavy lifts that Congress has to do -- just finish the job," Hawkins said.

The Cape Girardeau County USDA Service Center was closed "due to the lapse in USDA funding," effective Tuesday until further notice.

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