July 9, 2025
www.gfb.org
Vol. 7 No. 14
FINAL BUDGET RECONCILIATION BILL GIVES CERTAINTY TO FARMERS On July 3, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, commonly referred to as “One Big Beautiful Bill,” by a 218-214 vote. Major agricultural groups, including Farm Bureau, welcomed passage of the bill, which should benefit farmers. This followed the U.S. Senate passing the bill in a 51-50 vote July 1, with Vice President J.D. Vance casting the vote required to break the tie. President Donald Trump signed the bill into law July 4. Georgia Republicans Rick Allen, Buddy Carter, Andrew Clyde, Mike Collins, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Brian Jack, Barry Loudermilk, Rich McCormick and Austin Scott voted in favor of the bill. “Farm Bureau applauds the House and Senate for passing legislation that will bring certainty to America’s farmers and ranchers. Modernizing important farm safety net programs and making permanent critical tax provisions could be the difference between staying in business or shutting down the family farm,” said American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall. “More than half of farmers are losing money, so an increase in reference prices is desperately needed, and tax tools will help farmers and ranchers plan for the next season and the next generation.” The National Cotton Council (NCC) called the bill a “major win for Georgia cotton growers,” and noted that the 2018 farm bill, under which U.S. farmers are still operating, is too out-of-date to address cotton growers’ concerns. The NCC praised Congress for including $67 billion in additional farm bill funding that “will bring the cotton safety net more in line with current production costs. The NCC and the United States Peanut Federation (USPF) both pointed to the bill’s adjustments to commodity reference prices as positive moves. For cotton, the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) seed reference price is increased from 36.7 cents per pound to 42 cents per pound, effective with the 2025 crop. At 42 cents per pound reference price would have triggered payments under the PLC plan in 32 of the last 35 crop years. The bill calls for increases in payments limits under PLC and Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) to $155,000, indexed to inflation, and allows entities such as S-Corps and limited liability companies (LLCs) to -continued on next page