Farm Bureau has been told that House GOP leadership wants Fiscal Year 2025 spending bills out of the way before a Farm Bill moves forward. Well, House Republicans’ fiscal year 2025 USDA spending plan advanced in subcommittee late Tuesday and sharply cut the president’s request, upending key administration priorities.
The GOP spending plan would pare nearly $2.7 billion or almost 9.5% off the president’s USDA/FDA budget request.
“This subcommittee will not prioritize climate change, equity, or green initiatives over mission critical services to our farmers,” says Maryland Republican Dr. Andy Harris, subcommittee chair.
The GOP bill rejects new funding for USDA regional climate hubs, and the climate corps. And the fight over SNAP reforms continues inside and outside of the farm bill.
“As steward of taxpayer dollars, we have an obligation to scrutinize mandatory funding when it goes beyond what Congress has authorized and intended,” Harris added. “The USDA has consistently sought to expand eligibility, loosen work requirements, and increase benefits.”
The GOP bill would boost both SNAP and WIC, but only to account for inflation and allow states into a SNAP voluntary pilot to restrict unhealthy food choices. And the bill rejects any new program funding, taking aim at the bureaucracy as Harris did for FY 2024.
“You’re prioritizing bloating the bureaucracy, focusing on staffing up your Washington, D.C. headquarters rather than hiring field office staff to serve and support our nation’s producers and to deliver on USDA’s core mission.”
The FY 2025 proposal boosts funding for ag research, meat and poultry inspectors, emerging pest control, and the ReConnect broadband program. It also improves tracking of foreign ownership of U.S. farmland and directs NASS to reinstate its July cattle and county crop reports.
Source: NAFB News Service
