The Senate Agriculture Committee approved a $500 billion farm bill on Tuesday that would expand spending on the federally subsidized crop insurance program by 10 percent and trim spending slightly on food stamps for the poor.
The bill now goes to the Senate floor, where a vote could be called yet this month. The House Agriculture Committee was scheduled to draft its farm bill on Wednesday. The new five-year farm law is months overdue after an election-year deadlock in 2012.
Expansion of crop insurance in the Senate bill would be part of a remodeling of farm subsidies. The $5 billion a year direct-payment subsidy - a target of reformers - would end. Separate insurance programs to guarantee revenue to cotton and peanut growers would be created, as well as an insurance program to compensate growers if revenue from other crops drops by more than 10 percent.
