To: Members of the House Committee on Agriculture
From: Bryan Riley, Director, Free Trade Initiative, National Taxpayers Union
Re: NTU’s Views on May 13, 2025 Committee Markup
On behalf of National Taxpayers Union (NTU), the nation’s oldest taxpayer advocacy organization, we write to express our views on measures that are slated for consideration before the House Committee on Agriculture on May 13, 2025.
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Deficit Reduction. NTU commends the Committee’s proposal to reduce deficits by a combined $230 billion from FY2025 to FY2034, meeting the Committee’s deficit reduction goal in the House FY2025 Budget Resolution. Continued growth of federal deficit spending represents one of the greatest challenges facing the United States.
Nutrition Programs. The bulk of federal agriculture spending is directed toward nutrition programs, and the largest of these is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). NTU has long supported reforms to SNAP, including enhanced work requirements as prioritized in the Committee Print. In addition to updating SNAP work requirements to encourage able-bodied people to join the workforce, the Committee addresses longstanding problems with fraud in the SNAP program. According to the Government Accountability Office, as of FY2023, 11.7% of SNAP payments were improper. The Committee Print would require states to directly share in the cost of SNAP, incentivizing them to do a better job of preventing improper payments. The Committee also bolsters the ability of Congress to prevent states or the executive branch from manipulating SNAP rules to boost eligibility. These changes would provide for significant savings over the next 10 years.
While some critics have expressed reservations about the impact of such changes, NTU believes that policies that promote a growing economy are the best tool to help low-income Americans afford food for their families.
Farm Subsidies. The most recent USDA Farm Income Forecast projects record-high farm wealth for 2025 and near-record levels of net farm income. This would be a good time to consider opportunities to save money through measures like the Assisting Family Farmers through Insurance Reform Measures (AFFIRM) Act, which would cap premium subsidies and apply work requirements to subsidy recipients, or other measures to improve means testing of farm subsidies.
Instead of finding savings in farm programs, the Committee proposes to increase farm subsidies. For example, reference prices for crops covered by the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) & Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs would increase by 10% to 20%. The Committee Print would provide $489.5 million a year for agricultural trade promotion and facilitation, an expensive proposition that would do little to help farmers weather the uncertainty and lost markets resulting from U.S. tariff actions and foreign retaliation. To properly assess their merits, new spending on crop insurance subsidies, trade promotion programs, increases in Title I payment limitations, modifications to means testing for conservation programs, and other changes proposed in the Committee Print should be transparently debated as part of farm bill legislation.
NTU commends the Committee on meeting its deficit reduction goal, but encourages all savings proposed by the Committee to be used to reduce federal deficits, not redirected to expanded farm subsidies. We support the Committee’s deficit reduction efforts and encourage efforts to find additional savings in farm programs.
Should you have any questions about the recommendations in this memo, please do not hesitate to reach out to Bryan Riley at briley@ntu.org.