Overview

The enacted 2014 farm bill eliminated "direct payments," which were provided annually to producers and landowners of covered commodities from 1996 to 2013 based on historical production and a fixed payment rate set in statute. All farm program support now consists of variable payments. The PLC and ARC programs are enhanced relative to their predecessors via higher reference prices for PLC and more "local" coverage for ARC (whereby payments are triggered by county or individual losses rather than at the state level). In a major departure from previous farm bills and in response to a trade dispute with Brazil, upland cotton is no longer a covered commodity, with support for that crop now provided by a new crop insurance policy called the Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX).