The massive $1.5 trillion Farm Bill would set policy and funding levels for key food agriculture and conservation programs for the next five years, but it remains stalled in Congress, now working on a one year extension from the 2018 Farm Bill. North Carolina Republican Senator Ted Budd tells SFN the bill contains a lot of non-farm items he’s not comfortable with.

“85% of the content of the federal farm bill has nothing to do with farming. It has to do with SNAP benefits, and which is a form of welfare, and now you’re tacking on another trillion dollars more than that. It’s well over a trillion dollars in this bill, which is not even directly related to agriculture. I think that’s why a lot of us have heartburn on this, even though we want to do everything we can to support our farmers.

Budd would like to see a farm bill about farming, but understands the politics that makes that a challenge on Capitol Hill.

“I’d like to see it split. I think it would be a much more honest bill, but there’s a lot of politics behind it that we got to overcome, but I am totally willing to split that off and make a true farm bill all about farming.”

The bill would increase the farm safety net payments for some commodity programs, expand eligibility for disaster assistance and increase funding for specialty crops, organic farmers and dairy farmers. It is expected to cost about $1.5 trillion over 10 years.