A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week would expand the Commodity Credit Corporations annual borrowing authority. The legislation from Republican Representative Austin Scott of Georgia would raise the CCC’s borrowing authority from $30 billion to $68 billion.
Scott says the move would give the Department of Agriculture greater flexibility to maintain farm bill programs that support farmers and stabilize domestic agricultural markets. By raising the CCC’s borrowing limit, Scott says USDA would have greater ability to address the economic effects that COVID-19, volatile markets, and other factors have had on rural America.
The CCC’s borrowing authority was last adjusted to $30 billion in 1987. Since then, agriculture has faced many challenges, one of the most difficult being the economic impacts of COVID-19. Last month, an analysis by the American Farm Bureau Federation showed that if adjusted for inflation, the borrowing limit for the CCC would be nearly $68 billion, as proposed by Representative Scott’s legislation.
(From the National Association of Farm Broadcasters)