by Ben Nuelle
Congress has kept their promise and found a way to reverse the crop insurance cuts.
According an Agri-Pulse report, congress will use the highway bill to reverse a $3 billion cut to crop insurance. A House aide said Tuesday the $3 billion cut would be replaced through a Federal Reserve dividend cut for big banks.
An agreement on the transportation measure is expected before programs expire Friday.
In a released statement, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway strongly commended House Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy for their leadership in ensuring that crop insurance continues to be available, affordable, and accessible to America?s farmers and ranchers.
He also commended Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster for agreeing to include the time sensitive repeal in the Highway Bill conference report.
The Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau, American Association of Crop Insurers and the National Crop Insurance Service released a statement Tuesday. The statement read the budget legislation ?contained a disastrous provision that would have devastated crop insurance as we know it today, harming U.S. farmers and taxpayers alike”.
Conaway hopes his colleagues in Congress will lend their strong support in ensuring that the Highway Bill conference report is enacted into law and that crop insurance is saved.
He said it would not come from any agriculture programs, a condition of his agreement with the House leadership.
Before voting on the budget deal, both incoming Speaker Ryan and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell agreed to reverse they cuts but at the time they did not know how they would do it.
The $3 billion in cuts to crop insurance was proposed in the two-year budget deal.
