Committees in both the Senate and House have passed versions of the 2013 Farm Bill. While a final version is far from implementation, it is a step forward.

The Senate voted 15 to 5 in favor of the mark up on May 14, and the House voted for the mark up 36 to 10 the next day.

The bill passed by the House committee proposes a $940 billion budget Farm Bill over the next ten years, and the Senate committee approved a $955 billion plan. In both House and Senate mark ups, direct payments would be eliminated, resulting in close to $5 billion in cuts, and some of the money would be shifted to specialty crop subsidies in the South, according to the Washington Post article, Proposed farm bills cut billions from current spending levels .

In addition to direct payment cuts, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) faces cuts from both mark ups, but the House proposes much higher cuts to the program. The Senate bill plans to cut SNAP funding by approximately $400 million each year, while the House bill cuts $2 billion.

Other programs in the Farm Bill that are under scrutiny include the crop insurance program and tobacco grower subsidies. Below is a comparison chart of program changes that were created during the committee mark ups.

The target price program in the House version of the 2013 Farm Bill is largely the same as the PLC program included in the 2012 Farm Bill, according to Nick Paulson of University of Illinois . Congress will fix reference prices for all crops, and they are set above current commodity program target prices. In the Senate bill, the current and proposed AMP program includes payment acres for 85% of planted acreage and payment yields are allowed to be updated from current levels to 90% of the average farm yield from 2008 to 2012.

source: http://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2013/05/farm-bill-update-changes.html

The Senate took the Farm Bill mark up to the floor on May 21, and debates have begun. No date has been set to begin Farm Bill debates in the House.

To view the Senate version of the Farm Bill check out the Senate’s ag committee website or to view the House version, check out the House’s ag committee site .