According to an official cost estimate released Friday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the House Agriculture Committee's Farm Bill would boost the federal budget deficit by $33 billion over 10 years. The funding gap could force House leaders to either direct the CBO to change its budget estimate or to modify the legislation, if they want to put the bill on the House floor.
At issue is a provision in the bill intended to suspend USDA’s use of section 5 under its Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) spending authority. CBO’s estimate of the potential savings is short of what is needed to cover the cost of several commodity program provisions, including higher reference prices in the Price Loss Coverage program.
The CBO estimates there is a 50% probability the CCC provision could save $3.6 billion between Fiscal Years 2025 through 2033. Meanwhile, the CBO estimated the bill would increase the cost of commodity programs by $43.4 billion over the same period. Other cuts in the bill lower the net cost increase to $33 billion. For additional information, see here.