Not passing
Abby Youngblood 6-4-24 {Collaborative and strategic leader with experience in organic agriculture, public policy, fundraising, and non-profit management. Since 2015, she has served as the Executive Director at the National Organic Coalition (NOC), an alliance of farmers, ranchers, NGOs, and companies dedicated to protecting organic integrity. } - ("June Farm Bill Update — National Organic Coalition," National Organic Coalition, published xx-xx-xxxx, accessed 6-30-2024, https://www.nationalorganiccoalition.org/blog/2024/6/4/june-farm-bill-update)//marlborough-sm/
The recent House Agriculture Committee vote is just the first step in a long process to enact new Farm Bill legislation.
To advance the Farm Bill, the House will need to send it to the floor for a vote by the full House of Representatives. There is a lot of uncertainty about when or if that will happen in 2024. House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-PA) has said he doesn’t anticipate the bill will go for a floor vote before September due to the work taking place this summer on annual appropriations legislation (which must pass by September 30 to keep the federal government funded).
Even if the bill does move to a floor vote, it is unlikely to pass in its current form. Most Democrats have opposed the bill because it will:
Restrict future updates to the Thrifty Food Plan (which determines benefit levels for SNAP program participants),
Rescind all available Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding, reallocating it to conservation programs without the original climate change mitigation requirements, and
Restrict to how the USDA uses Commodity Credit Corporation funds.
What is happening in the Senate?
On May 1, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Stabenow (D-MI) released a detailed Farm Bill framework, but she has not yet released the full legislative text. NOC is thrilled that this framework includes numerous provisions that NOC has called for in our Farm Bill platform, as laid out in marker bills endorsed by NOC, and championed through our advocacy work over the past several years. You can read our full analysis here.
Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Boozman (R-AR) is expected to release his own Farm Bill framework soon. NOC will be taking a close look at that framework to assess the ways it advances organic agriculture and to determine how it differs from the legislation passed by the House Agriculture Committee and the framework laid out by Chairwoman Stabenow.
NOC will be watching how negotiations between Senators Stabenow and Boozman evolve, and between the House and Senate after the release of Ranking Member Boozman’s framework.
What happens if Congress does not pass a Farm Bill in 2024?
If Congress fails to pass a Farm Bill in 2024, they will likely enact another one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill. This puts the Organic Certification Cost Share Program at risk! Unlike larger Farm Bill programs which are automatically included in a Farm Bill extension, the Organic Certification Cost Share Program is too small to have ‘permanent baseline’ funding status.
In the Farm Bill extension passed in November 2023, we secured additional funding for the Organic Certification Cost Share Program. We will need to do that again to ensure funding for the program in 2025 if the Farm Bill is once again extended.