While the possibility of a government shutdown looms, Congress faces a different Sept. 30 deadline to renew some provisions of the farm bill. That sweeping legislation funds everything from agricultural subsidies to nutrition assistance and conservation programs. 

It’s that time of year again where another extended farm bills due to expire. It’s two years overdue for a full refresh. But this time around, punctuality is the least of the bill’s problems. Daniel Sumner, an economist at University of California, Davis, cleared some things up about that legislation. 

“The first thing you have to say is people call it the ‘farm bill’ but almost none of it has anything to do with a farm,” Sumner said.

It’s true that about 80% of the 2018 Farm Bill funded nutrition programs, like food stamps or SNAP and school lunches. Most of the rest covers farm subsidies. 

“And I always laugh out loud when reporters say ‘Oh, we get a farm bill every five years,’” Sumner said. “And I say ‘Yeah, except when we don't, which is every time.’”

The farm bill binds together the interests of commodity farmers in rural districts and low-income families mostly in urban ones. So, it’s not remarkable that Congress has kicked the can a few times. 

“But this farm bill is special,” Sumner said. In that most of the big-ticket items that it would normally address were part of the GOP policy bill that passed this summer. 

“And that has really changed the dynamics of farm bill debate going forward,” said Claire Kelloway with the Open Markets Institute. 

She said it was congressional Republicans who pushed to fund crop insurance and commodity price floors and to cut funding for SNAP through budget reconciliation, without Democrats weighing in.

“For a long time, the farm bill kind of forced a more bipartisan process but it looks like it’s becoming more like every other policy issue,” Kelloway said.

With those core provisions settled, there’s not much incentive or even the good will in Congress to renew the rest of the bill. 

“It’s not gonna be the sort of thing I think that’s easily repaired and everybody goes back and says ‘Oh, that was a crazy time but everything’s normal now,’” said Jonathan Coppess, a professor with the University of Illinois’ agriculture policy program.

He said the coalitions that got past farm bills out the door took a long time to build and could take even longer to restore.