Initial Review of the Senate Ag Committee's Draft 2018 Farm Bill

The Senate Ag Committee draft bill contains reauthorizations for all twelve titles from the 2014 Farm Bill, much of which constitutes fairly straight-forward extensions of authorizations and funds, some with minor modifications. The Senate draft bill also includes reauthorization of the programs in the energy title which was eliminated by the House Ag Committee bill. The following initial review will focus only on the program reauthorizations and modifications in the four main titles with mandatory funding: Commodities (Title I); Conservation (Title II); Nutrition (Title IV) and Crop Insurance (Title XI). From a review of the proposed modifications to various programs, a larger point about legislating and policymaking also emerges.