Ag lawmakers back budget after vow to kill crop insurance cuts

Lawmakers with close ties to the agriculture industry are back on board with the budget pact, after congressional leaders promised to scrap deeper cuts to a crop insurance program.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), the top Democrat on the panel, said they would back the two-year budget accord. That came one day after they announced their opposition to it due to the inclusion of deeper cuts to a crop insurance program to help cover the costs of the bill.

{mosads}Conaway said that leaders had promised that those crop insurance cuts would not survive in the final government funding bill, which must be crafted by Dec. 11.

“I take our leadership at their word when they committed to me and many of my colleagues that we will eliminate these harmful provisions in the not-so-distant future, which is why I will vote in support of the budget agreement today,” said Conaway in a statement. “I encourage my rural-minded colleagues to follow suit and put their support behind this agreement by passing the budget deal on the floor today.”

The two-year budget deal, which raises spending by $80 billion, covers the costs of that new spending via an array of offsets. One of those would raise $3 billion by lowering the maximum rate of return available to crop insurers.

But that particular policy tweak drew heavy fire from farm state lawmakers, who argued that crop insurers already agreed to take a hit in the 2014 farm bill, and should not be used as a piggy bank to help cover additional policy proposals.

Winning the support of farm state lawmakers should help ease passage of the budget accord, which is now facing criticism primarily from conservative lawmakers, while receiving broad backing from Democrats.