House version of farm bill - Entrepreneur Generations

"The House version of a new farm bill released Thursday would allow the Secretary of Agriculture to declare a rural health emergency, making it easier to award grants and loans to community health facilities and telehealth programs," Bryce Oates and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder.

The bill doesn't name specific types of health emergencies, but prioritizes loans for facilities providing "recovery services." The health emergency provision affects Title VI of the farm bill, which only accounts for 1 percent of the bill's overall expenditure, but covers "rural utilities like electricity, phone, and broadband; community facilities; small business development; waste water and water treatment; and similar programs." Trump proposed big cuts in those programs in 2017, but Congress hasn't followed through. 

The bill would also add more work requirements for an estimated 4 million to 5 million participants in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, and would cut food stamps by about $93 billion over 10 years.

Other facets of the bill include:

• Almost $100 billion in spending cuts over 10 years, 90 percent of which comes from the nutrition program.
• Reauthorization of the Delta Regional Commission and the Northern Great Plains Regional Authority at reduced funding levels.
• Continued funding for rural economic and infrastructure development, including broadband.
• Continued funding for crop insurance and income support programs with minor changes, like recently negotiated benefits for sugar and dairy producers.
• Significant changes to conservation programs: the Conservation Reserve Program acreage cap is increased from 20 million acres to 29 million acres over the next five years, and per-acre rental payments are decreased. No new sign-ups will be permitted in the Conservation Stewardship Program. Funding is increased for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
• $255 million in funding per year to develop international agricultural trade.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2HoR9FU House version of farm bill - Entrepreneur Generations

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

Tweet