WASHINGTON, DC – After the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released the baseline for the 2023 farm bill, farm groups and some members of Congress expressed their frustration due to the cost of the new legislation.
Sen. John Boozman (AR-R) is the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and says, “the baseline presents a challenge. It shows that the Biden administration’s improper sloppy reevaluation of the Thrifty Food Plan will continue to dramatically increase SNAP spending during the span of the next farm bill and drives the cost of the legislation to record heights.”
Specifically, the CBO projects the total for all non-nutrition-related programs will cost more than all the spending outside the nutrition title, with $225 billion in spending to the 2021, 2026, and 2031 updates to the Thrifty Food plan alone.
“This is unsustainable and must be thoroughly debated as Congress considers the next farm bill,” Boozman explains. “We are looking at the most expensive farm bill ever, and the administration’s lack of good judgment and poor decision-making will make this farm bill a much heavier lift for Congress.”
(SOURCE: All Ag News)