The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 reauthorizes crops insurance and conservation programs that farmers rely on during tough times and revises a safety net program for dairy farmers that was a “disaster” under the previous five-year law.

Known as the farm bill, the Agriculture Improvement Act also maintains the food stamp program.

Adopted by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives last week, the bill now goes to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it into law.

Reauthorizing crop insurance is one of the most important provisions in the bill, said Jim Boldy, vice president of the Butler County Farm Bureau and a member of bureau's state and national legislative committees.

“We've been trying to talk to legislators and tell them why it's imp to pass the bill. Crop insurance was one of the major points,” Boldy said. “The Farm Bureau is very excited it passed.”

A farm bill is passed every five years and Congress was supposed to pass the 2018 bill by June 30, the end of the fiscal year, said Mark O'Neil, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau spokesman.

If the bill wasn't passed before the end of the calendar year, the 1939 farm bill would have gone into effect until Congress passed a new bill, he said.

The 1939 bill does not include crop insurance, O'Neil said.

This is an excerpt — read the full story in Monday's Butler Eagle.