American farmers and ranchers benefited handsomely from President Donald Trump’s massive spending and tax package that passed last week.
According to Agri-Pulse, an agriculture news service that covers farm and food policy news, the legislation provides $66 billion in new spending for farm programs while extending the 2017 tax cuts and 45Z biofuels tax credit.
It will be the largest amount of new funding for farm programs since 2002, the news agency reported.
To make up for the bill’s elimination of $186 billion over 10 years for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, farmers will receive increased spending, Agri-Pulse reported.
Farmers will also see an increase in payments through the Price Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage programs, as well as reduced crop insurance premiums. Farmers will be allowed to enroll up to 30 million additional acres into PLC and ARC.
The bill also puts new money into trade promotion initiatives and agricultural research.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins defended the deep cuts to funding Medicaid and SNAP, saying some of the savings will enable more spending on farm programs, including $59 billion of commodity programs and an additional $6 billion for crop insurance.
Rollins told CNBC the historic cut to food stamps will provide “better and more important support for our farmers and ranchers.”
