Congress periodically establishes agricultural and food policy in an omnibus farm bill. Following nearly three years of debate, Congress completed action in February 2014 on the most recent farm bill (The Agricultural Act of 2014 (P.L. 113-78), which succeeded the expired Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 farm bill, P.L. 110-246). The 2014 farm bill establishes policy for the next five years in its 12 titles, covering farm commodity price and income support, crop insurance, conservation, domestic food assistance, agricultural trade and international food aid, credit, rural development, research, horticulture, forestry, and bioenergy, among others. Periodic farm bills provide Congress, the Administration, and interest groups with an opportunity to reexamine agriculture and food issues more carefully, and address them more comprehensively. Within the various titles of the enacted 2014 farm bill are provisions that reshape the structure of farm commodity support, expand crop insurance coverage, consolidate conservation programs, reauthorize and revise nutrition assistance, and extend authority to appropriate funds for many U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) discretionary programs through FY2018. Many provisions of the previous farm bill (P.L. 110-246) expired in 2012, but were extended for an additional year in the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 ( P.L. 112-240 , the fiscal cliff bill). The 112 th Congress began work on a new farm bill but did not complete action before the conclusion of the Congress, requiring new bills to be introduced in the 113 th Congress. The House and Senate Agriculture Committees marked up their respective bills in May 2013 and floor action was completed in the summer months. A conference agreement was reached in late January 2014; it was approved by both chambers within eight days and was signed into law as the Agricultural Act of 2014 ( P.L. 113-79 ) on February 7, 2014. The Senate Agriculture Committee reported its version of the 2013 omnibus farm bill on May 14, 2013 (S. 954, the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013), by a vote of 15-5. Floor action began during the week of May 20, 2013, and concluded on June 10, 2013, when the full Senate approved the measure by a vote of 66-27. While the bill was being debated in the Senate, approximately nine amendments were adopted and six were rejected. Attempts to modify the sugar program, further limit SNAP spending, eliminate crop insurance subsidies for tobacco, and require the labeling of genetically engineered foods were all defeated. More than 200 other amendments were offered to the Senate bill, but were not considered, when an agreement could not be reached on consolidating the amendments and limiting floor debate. On May 15, 2013, the House Agriculture Committee completed markup of its version of the bill ( H.R. 1947 , the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013) and approved the revised measure by a 36-10 vote. The bill was subsequently referred to the House Judiciary Committee, which revised the bill to ensure that certain dairy programs were subject to standard rulemaking procedures. Floor action on the House bill was conducted during the week of June 17, 2013, when numerous amendments were adopted to the committee bill. However, the amended bill was defeated by a vote of 195-234 on June 20. Three weeks later, the full House debated a variation of the defeated bill that dropped all of the nutrition title but included all of the earlier adopted floor amendments to the other titles. This revised bill ( H.R. 2642 ) was approved by the House by a 216-208 vote on July 11. In order to initiate conference committee negotiations with the House, the Senate on July 18 substituted the text of H.R. 2642 with the text of S. 954 . On September 19, the House passed a stand-alone nutrition bill ( H.R. 3102 ) by a vote of 217-210. The House adopted a resolution ( H.Res. 361 ) on September 28 that combined the texts of H.R. 2642 and H.R. 3102 into one bill ( H.R. 2642 ) for purposes of resolving differences with the Senate. A conference agreement reconciling the differences between the two measures was reported as the Agricultural Act of 2014 ( H.Rept. 113-333 ) on January 27, 2014. Within eight days, both chambers approved the conference agreement, the House on January 29 by a vote of 251-166 and the Senate on February 4 by a vote of 68-32. The President signed it into law ( P.L. 113-79 ) on February 7, 2014. This report begins with a brief overview of the estimated budgetary impact of the 2014 farm bill, followed by a summary comparison of the major provisions of each title. A side-by-side section comprehensively compares all of the provisions in P.L. 113-79 to Senate and House versions of the farm bill—including S. 954 as passed by the Senate (also referred to as the Senate amendment to H.R. 2642 ) and the House-passed version of H.R. 2642 (which includes the provisions of H.R. 3102 as a new Title IV to H.R. 2642 )—as well as to relevant provisions in then-current law. The "Prior Law/Policy" column of the side-by-side tables reflects the provisions of the 2008 farm bill ( P.L. 110-246 ) as amended by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 ( P.L. 112-240 ), which extended most of the 2008 farm bill provisions for an additional year, as well as other relevant statutes that are revised by the 2014 farm bill. The budgetary impact of the 2014 farm bill is measured relative to what the prior farm bill would have spent had it been continued. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the mandatory programs of the 2008 farm bill would have cost $973 billion if continued for the next 10 years (FY2014-FY2023). This "baseline" already had been reduced by $6.4 billion to reflect the effects of sequestration over the 10-year baseline. Compared to this post-sequestration baseline, the 2014 farm bill ( P.L. 113-79 ) reduces projected spending and the deficit by $16.6 billion (-1.7%) over 10 years. (The five-year reduction through FY2018 is $5.4 billion from a five-year baseline of $494 billion.) P.L. 113-79 saves less than either the House-passed or Senate-passed proposals. The House-passed combination of H.R. 2642 and H.R. 3102 together would have reduced spending by $51.9 billion (-5.3%) over 10 years. The Senate-passed farm bill proposal ( S. 954 ) would have reduced spending by $17.9 billion (-1.8%) over 10 years. If the baseline had not already been reduced by sequestration, the enacted 2014 farm bill could have been credited for reducing spending by $23 billion over 10 years. Similarly, the savings from each of the House and Senate proposals could have been $6.4 billion greater. But sequestration had already been factored into the baseline, so the official score of P.L. 113-79 remains as savings of $16.6 billion over 10 years. The net reduction is composed of some titles receiving more funding than in the past, while other titles provide offsets, some of which contributes to deficit reduction. The titles for farm commodity subsidies, nutrition, and conservation provide budgetary savings. The titles for crop insurance, research, bioenergy, horticulture, rural development, trade, forestry, and miscellaneous items receive additional funding. The final 2014 farm bill is projected to spend $956 billion over the next 10 years, of which $756 billion is for nutrition assistance and $200 billion is for the agriculture portion. (The five-year total is $489 billion, with $391 billion for nutrition and $98 billion for the agriculture portion). Within the agriculture portion, crop insurance outlays are projected to be $90 billion over the next 10 years, $58 billion for conservation, and $44 billion for farm commodity programs (Title I). The trade title is projected to spend $3.6 billion over the next 10 years, horticulture $1.7 billion, research $1.3 billion, and bioenergy $1.1 billion. Figure 1 illustrates the budgetary impacts of changes to each title in each bill. The Table contains the data in tabular form and includes an estimate of the projected outlays. More details on the farm bill budget are available in CRS Report R42484, Budget Issues That Shaped the 2014 Farm Bill . Under the enacted 2014 farm bill ( P.L. 113-79 ), farm support for traditional program crops is restructured by eliminating direct payments, the counter-cyclical price (CCP) program, and the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program. Since 1996, direct payments have been made to producers and landowners based on historical production of corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, rice, peanuts, and other "covered" crops. Direct payments lost political support in recent years because recipients did not need to suffer a loss in order to receive a payment. Approximately three-fourths of the 10-year, $47 billion in savings associated with the elimination of current farm programs was used to offset the costs of revising farm programs in Title I, adding permanent disaster assistance in Title I, and enhancing crop insurance in Title XI. P.L. 113-79 provides farm programs (described below) for covered crops, but not cotton, which has a new crop insurance policy (see " Farm Bill Title XI, Crop Insurance "). Under P.L.