Fight brewing over Biden climate funds that help farmers in Republican-leaning states
By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -An effort by Republican U.S. lawmakers to reallocate $18 billion in climate-friendly agriculture funding under President Joe Biden's signature climate law would shift money away from programs that primarily benefit farmers in Republican-leaning states, a Reuters analysis found.
The Inflation Reduction Act money, earmarked for U.S. Department of Agriculture-designated «climate-smart» farm practices, is intended to support Biden's agriculture climate agenda, which relies heavily on storing carbon in the soil and lowering emissions through sustainable farming techniques.
About 65% of the new money due to be spent under the law on those climate-friendly practices would go to farmers in states that backed Republican former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, and about 70% would go to states with a Republican member on the House or Senate farm committees, according to a Reuters examination of projections by University of Illinois agricultural policy professor Jonathan Coppess.
Iowa stands to get the most money with $1.03 billion, followed by Texas ($772 million) and Arkansas ($723 million), according to the projections by Coppess, which used historical USDA funding data to estimate how the Inflation Reduction Act money would be distributed.
Republican House of Representatives Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn «GT» Thompson and the Senate Agriculture Committee's top Republican, John Boozman, want to reallocate the Inflation Reduction Act money to all conservation programs without the climate-related requirements.
Under Thompson's plan, some money also would be moved to crop supports and other farm programs, a committee aide said.
A spokesperson for Thompson expressed
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