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Two weeks ago, President Obama signed the Agriculture Act of 2014 into law. The Agriculture Act of 2014 is the first farm bill to be passed since 2008, when Congress overrode President George W. Bush’s veto and passed the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. The last Congress failed to pass a farm bill, but Republicans and Democrats were able to compromise and made the Agriculture Act of 2014 a reality. The farm bill, which is passed every five years, is an interesting form of political theatre. Republicans and Democrats from farming states typically support higher agricultural subsidies and funding for research, while liberal, urban Democrats and Republicans support funding for food stamps in the bill. In fact, funding the food stamp program, also referred to as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is eighty percent of the Agriculture Act. Fiscal conservatives and free traders typically blast the agriculture bill as bloated, wasteful, and harmful for developing nations, but due to politics it is very rare to see the farm bill produce significant savings for the U.S. federal government.
This topic brief will break down the history of American farm policy and facts about the most recent farm bill, discuss cuts made in the bill to the food stamp program that have been opposed by liberal Democrats, and then discuss how agriculture subsidies impact American trade policy and the U.S. budget.
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