The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) implements the majority of the farm bill programs. The authority for USDA to operate farm commodity support programs comes from three permanent laws, as amended: the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 (P.L. Many current farm bill provisions expire on September 30, 2018. This report focuses on three principal support programs in Title I of the 2014 farm bill: the Price Loss Coverage (PLC), Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC), and Marketing Assistance Loan (MAL) programs. Affected commodities include corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, cotton, peanuts, oats, barley, grain sorghum, pulse crops (dry peas, lentils, small chickpeas, and large chickpeas), and other oilseeds (including sunflower seed, rapeseed, canola, safflower, flaxseed, mustard seed, crambe, and sesame seed). In addition, this report discusses potential issues for Congress—including expiration of the farm bill and the adjusted gross income eligibility threshold for commodity program payments—and presents a selection of legislation introduced in the 115 th Congress that could impact the farm commodity program payments under Title I. Dairy, livestock, tree crops, and sugar producers have separate programs within Title I that are outside the scope of this report. The 2014 farm bill repealed these direct payments but continues payments to producers of a broad array of "covered crops" when prices are low relative to statutory price support levels or when compared with historical crop revenue. USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) reported the percentage of base acres by commodity. In contrast, ARC and PLC payments are "decoupled" payments. PLC payments are triggered when the national marketing-year average farm price (MYAP) for a qualifying covered commodity (referred to as the effective price) is below its statutorily fixed reference price. If triggered, the PLC payment amount for a covered commodity is equal to the payment rate times the commodity's historical program yield times 85% of the commodity's base acres enrolled in PLC. ARC-CO payments are then equal to the per-acre payment rate times 85% of the base acres enrolled in ARC-CO for the respective program crop. The ARC-IC farm's guarantee equals 86% of the ARC-IC farm's individual benchmark guarantee, defined as the summation of the five-year average of an ARC-IC farm's annual ARC-IC benchmark revenue for each program crop (i.e., the farm's yield for each program crop, multiplied by the higher of the crop's reference price or the MYAP), excluding the high and low annual revenues. Coupled Price Protection: Marketing Assistance Loan (MAL)

MAL offers interim financing for the "covered" and "loan" commodities listed in Table 2 . If market prices fall below these statutory loan rates, additional benefits are available to producers with crops enrolled in MAL. Program Outlays Under the 2014 Farm Bill

The 2014 farm bill's PLC, ARC, and MAL programs cover the five crop years of 2014 through 2018; however, data on program outlays for ARC and PLC is available only for the first three years—2014-2016 ( Figure 5 ). Without congressional action, farm commodity program payments would revert to permanently authorized legislation from the 1930s and 1940s. Proposals in the 115th Congress for the Farm Commodity Programs

The upcoming farm bill discussions may address ARC, PLC, and MAL payments.
Federal efforts to bolster farm household incomes and the rural economy by providing support to producers of key crops has been a central pillar of U.S. farm policy since such programs were first introduced in the 1930s. Current farm support programs are counter-cyclical in design—that is payments are triggered when the annual market price for an eligible crop drops below a statutory minimum or when revenue is below a guaranteed level. The farm commodity program provisions in Title I of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (P.L. 113-79, the 2014 farm bill) consists of three types of support for crop years 2014-2018:
1. Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payments. PLC payments occur if the national average marketing year price for a "covered commodity" (e.g., wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, and peanuts, among others) is below its "reference price." The difference between these two prices is the per-unit payment rate, which is multiplied by historical program yields and paid on 85% of historical program acres (i.e., base acres). 2. Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) payments. ARC payments occur when annual crop revenue for a county or an individual producer is below its guaranteed level based on a five-year moving average of historical crop revenue. The difference between these prices is the per-acre payment rate, which is paid on 85% of base acres. 3. Marketing Assistance Loans (MAL). MAL offers interim financing for a group of "loan" commodities (consisting of covered crops plus several others) that is equal to actual production multiplied by statutorily set loan rates. Additional benefits are available to producers if market prices fall below loan rates.
These three commodity support programs are in effect for the 2014-2018 crop years. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) reported that ARC and PLC payments exceeded $5 billion in FY2014, and payments reached nearly $7 billion in both FY2015 and FY2016. Under current law, the Congressional Budget Office projects farm commodity program payments to exceed a combined total of $4 billion each fiscal year from 2016 to 2027.
The "covered commodities" that qualify for ARC and PLC include wheat, feed grains (corn, sorghum, barley, oats), seed cotton, rice, soybeans, other oilseeds (sunflower seed, rapeseed, canola, safflower, flaxseed, mustard seed, crambe, and sesame seed), and peanuts. Support under MAL is available for covered commodities plus refined beet and raw cane sugar, wool, mohair, honey, dry peas, lentils, and chickpeas.
The 2014 farm bill's Title I farm program payments are set to expire in September 2018. The upcoming farm bill discussions may address farm commodity program payments. Without a new farm bill or an extension of the current farm bill, the authority for some farm programs would expire, and some would cease to operate altogether. Accordingly, this report lists a selection of legislative proposals introduced in the 115th Congress that would impact the farm commodity program payments in Title I of the farm bill.
USDA administers these farm commodity programs. Dairy, livestock, tree crops, and sugar producers have separate programs within Title I that are outside the scope of this report.