Soybean farmers critical of cuts to crop insurance program

The American Soybean Association (ASA) has countered a statement from former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) on a perspective budget agreement that will cut more than $3 billion from the nation’s crop insurance program, including a reduction on the rate of return for crop insurance providers to 8.9 percent.

“Chairman Ryan made the claim this morning that this budget deal would strengthen our safety net programs when the exact opposite is true,” ASA President Wade Cowan, a Texas soybean farmer, said. “When he discusses strengthening the safety net, apparently we’re not talking about farmers.”

Farm programs are not part of the bill’s exempt spending categories.

“It is unconscionable that after the House and the Senate Agriculture Committees put more than three years of careful work into creating a farm bill that protects farmers and actually brings budget savings to the table, Congressional leadership would strike a backroom deal that hobbles our risk management framework,” Cowan said. “The farm economy is cyclical, and to assume that the farm economy won’t notice a $3 billion hit is extraordinarily short-sighted on the part of this Congress. We will continue to oppose any budget deal with this cut of our safety net included.”