Ag Policy Blog

The U.S. Senate remained in session on Sunday expecting to continue voting later in the day after passing a procedural vote late Saturday on a budget reconciliation bill for President Donald Trump's tax cuts and spending bill.

Congress is trying to get the bill to the president's desk by July 4, though there are differences between the House version passed in May and the Senate bill being debated on the floor. It remains to be seen whether House Republicans would accept changes to the bill drafted in the Senate.

The Senate held a prolonged procedural vote late Saturday evening that eventually ended 51-49 to advance the bill. The legislation is projected to add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over ten years.

The driver behind the bill is to prevent the 2017 tax cuts from expiring, but the bill plusses up some tax cuts while also cutting spending for Medicaid and food programs for low-income people.

Beyond the tax cuts, the bill also includes several provisions to improve the farm-safety net from the 2018 farm bill.

Two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, voted against the bill. That led to social media posts from President Donald Trump, who vowed to find primary candidates against Tillis in next year's election.

Tillis stated he could not back the bill because of lost funding for hospitals and rural areas, especially with Medicaid cuts.

"It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities," Tillis said. "This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population."

After the vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., played one of the few cards he had left by requiring the entire 940-plus page bill to be read before the Senate proceeded to other votes on the bill. The reading of the bill began overnight and continued into Sunday afternoon.

45Z CLEAN FUEL PRODUCTION CREDIT

In a key provision for the biofuels industry, the American Soybean Association (ASA) and National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) praised the Senate for going along with the House language for the 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit. Under the bill, only feedstocks from The U.S., Canada and Mexico would qualify for the tax credit. That should curb refiners from importing high volumes of used cooking oil coming from China.

The bill also extends the 45Z credit to the end of 2031. It's one of the few tax credits for clean energy to not only survive unscathed, but be granted an extension.

The Senate also expanded the Small Agri-Biodiesel Producer credit from 10 cents to 20 cents a gallon, and allows for transferring 45Z credits, which ASA and NOPA stated would help smaller biofuel producers.

The oilseed backers noted the soy crush industry has invested more than $6 billion to increased crush capacity by more than 25% since 2021. Along with that, current trade disputes demand more focus on increasing domestic use to help make up for some of those trade markets.

"Soybean farmers have long advocated for biofuel tax credits that put American farmers and our rural economies first, and ASA commends the Senate for their continued commitment to U.S. agriculture," said American Soybean Association President Caleb Ragland, who grows soy in Kentucky. "As we continue to advocate for new and expanded markets for U.S. soy, the work of the House and Senate will support the farm economy by bolstering a vital domestic market for our farmers."

PUBLIC LAND SALES OUT

Sen Mike Lee, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, pulled his provision that would have allowed up to 3 million acres of public land sales across as many as 11 western states.

Lee said his plan would have helped build housing in areas with high demand, but it split western-state Republicans. Before voting on the bill Saturday night, Lee posted on X that he was withdrawing the amendment, though he said there had been "misinformation" and "outright lies" about what the change would have done.

Lee also said some of the language changes meant he could not ensure the land would go to American families instead of foreign interests or corporations.

"I continue to believe the federal government owns far too much land -- land that is mismanaged and in many cases ruining for the next generation," Lee stated. "Under Democratic presidents, massive swaths of the West are being locked away from the people who live there, with no meaningful recourse."

TAX PROVISIONS

The Senate bill makes permanent a 20% deduction for qualified business income for smaller businesses. The Senate language is different from the House, which increases the qualified business income deduction to 23%.

When it comes to buying equipment, the bill reinstates 100% bonus depreciation from 2025-2030 and also increases the Section 179 deduction for smaller businesses to $2.5 million.

The bill would increase the estate tax exemption to $15 million for single tax filers and $30 million for married couples starting in 2026 and the exemption would be indexed for inflation.

AG PROVISIONS IN THE BILL

The bill includes improvements to the farm safety net with as much as $67 billion in program changes over 10 years.

That includes raising reference prices under the Prices Loss Coverage program (PLC) and the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) program. For the current crop year, the Senate bill has language that USDA will provide producers with the higher calculated payment rate in 2025 for ARC or PLC. Producers would then go back to choosing which program they prefer in 2026 and beyond.

The Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) is plussed up and the bill also reduces crop-insurance premiums for farmers as well.

Payment limits would increase from $125,000 to $155,000 for individuals and then the payment limit would increase based on an inflation index. The bill also removes income caps for farmers or entities that draw 75% or more of their income from agriculture or forestry.

The bill also has provisions that would allow USDA to enroll up to 30 million new base acres for farmers based on production history of that ground.

In conservation, the bill takes back as much as $16 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and rolls those funds into the ten-year budgets for USDA's main conservation programs. Still, the CBO forecasts that move as a nearly $1.8 billion in cuts compared to what the IRA and farm bill funding could have provided for conservation programs.

Other provisions in agriculture would expand on disaster aid for livestock producers and double funding for USDA trade promotion programs.

FOOD AID CUTS

The bill cuts $211 billion from the country's largest food-aid support program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Work restrictions would be tightened for able-bodied adults, people ages 55-64 and parents with children over age 14. The bill also restricts the Agriculture secretary from offering waivers to SNAP work requirements based on areas with higher unemployment rates. Combined, the work requirements would reduce SNAP spending by $92 billion over 10 years.

States also will be required to pay as much as 15% of the SNAP benefits based on USDA's report of their annual error rates. That provision would kick in 2028 and shift more than $4 billion in annual costs to states. Another cost shift to states increases their percentage of the administrative costs as well.

See, "Midwest Food Banks Warn They Can't Fill Gap if SNAP is Cut in Budget Bill," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

See, "Senate Ag Reconciliation Bill Offers Farmers Better Options for 2025 Programs," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Also see, "Six Tax Changes Made for Farm Businesses in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill'," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @ChrisClaytonDTN

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