In the 2018 Farm Bill, the reference price for peanuts was left unchanged from the previous bill because there wasn’t enough money to cover an increase. As the 2024 Farm Bill is being developed, times have changed due to higher production costs, and the talk is reference prices need to be increased. 

In an address to the Southern Peanut Growers Conference July 19 in Savannah, Ga., U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), the longest serving member on the House Agriculture Committee, noted that dramatically higher production costs have been factored into raising the reference price.   

“The draft that left the Ag Committee would raise the reference price on peanuts by 17.5%. Can we argue that that’s not enough? Probably so. But it is a commitment from Mr. Thompson (G.T. Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the committee) and the Ag Committee that I’m a part of as a whole that we have to address the economic conditions as they change,” Lucas told the peanut farmers.  

Campaign season challenges 

Lucas noted that the presidential campaign season is bringing extra challenges in passing a farm bill this year. The Ag Committee-passed farm bill has yet to make it to the full house for a vote, while the Senate has provided a farm bill outline but no legislative text. 

Lucas said Democrats aren’t opposed to making the safety net more viable for farmers, but he said they do want a dramatic increase in SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Lucas said the bill that came out of the House Agriculture Committee guarantees that money available for SNAP will increase at the rate of inflation. 

“They want a 20 to 30 percent increase on top of that and there’s just not enough money to make all of that happen so we’re struggling with those issues. Can we get a farm bill done? Absolutely. Is it going to be easy? No. It never is. It never will be,” Lucas said.  

In a news conference following his remarks, Lucas said he remains confident a farm bill will be passed and signed by the president. He just doesn’t know when it will happen. The talk is that a farm bill will be passed in the lame duck session of conference following the November elections. 

“I am confident President Biden will sign the farm bill if we put it on his desk. We just have to put a bill on the president’s desk.” Lucas said. 

Lucas said he is an eternal optimist and believes a farm bill will be passed “because we’re not reinventing the wheel. We’re adjusting the numbers. We don’t have to craft basic new policy just the numbers so this could come together.” 

A comprehensive bill 

Lucas said he is opposed to splitting the farm bill into two different bills, one for farm programs and the other for nutritional programs. 

“If you split the bill, that enables a certain number of my Democrat liberal friends who don’t want to spend any money on rural America to say ‘no we’re not voting for it. But by the same token, if you split the bill it enables some of my ultraconservative Republicans who don’t want to spend money on anybody for any reason for any occasion to vote against that and then this balance we have collapses, and we can’t let that happen,” Lucas said. 

Lucas said both the safety net provisions for farmers to maintain production and SNAP provisions to provide calories to citizens who face nutritional problems they can’t overcome are needed. 

“I’m opposed to splitting the bill because I believe if you split the bill, you basically sink both parts, and I have to have a comprehensive bill because I have to address all the issues,” Lucas said.   

Lucas has served in Congress on the Agriculture Committee since 1994. He has had a hand in writing every farm bill since 1996 and served as chairman of the committee from 2011 to 2015, crafting the 2014 farm bill.