President Donald Trump’s budget is expected to be released on Tuesday. It is still not known if or how much the president is expected to cut from farm subsidies and other programs that serve rural areas. Early press reports indicate that farm subsidies will be part of $1.7 trillion in proposed cuts to mandatory spending. House Ag Committee Chair Mike Conaway said it is “wrong-headed” to cut farm programs. “Production agriculture is in its worst slump since the Depression,” Conaway says, “with a 50 percent drop in net income. They need this safety net.” The crop insurance industry is anticipating that the President’s budget will include cuts, but the extent is not known yet. Dozens of agricultural groups sent a letter to Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, asking that the administration looks somewhere other than crop insurance for possible budget cuts.
The groups said in the letter, “Crop insurance is a linchpin of the farm safety net, and we urge you to break the tradition set by the previous administration and avoid cuts to the crop insurance program.” It is stressed that the president’s budget is a “wish list” and that cuts to crop insurance will meet opposition on Capitol Hill.
Source: NAFB News Service