There is finally some movement on the 942-page farm bill draft. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) released the House farm bill draft last Friday.
Now, the House Agriculture Committee is expected to mark up the bill on Thursday. The bill – renamed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act – is expected to cost $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
The current farm bill, which was extended once already, expires Sept. 30.
“If we’re going to move the farm bill forward, it’s certainly important that we take this first step. I think while it’s anybody’s guess at this point, most likely it will pass out of the committee in a partisan way on Thursday,” Mary Kay Thatcher, Manager, Federal Government and Industry Relations at Syngenta, said on AgriTalk on Monday.
The bill is likely to face considerable opposition in the Senate, which the Democrats control, because of disagreements over federal nutrition-assistance programs (SNAP) and climate-smart policy requirements.
In addition, Thatcher says the GOP-proposed farm bill looks to counteract Proposition 12, the Farm Animal Confinement Initiative, in California and also stop the Secretary of Agriculture from having so much flexibility to direct the use of Commodity Credit Corporation funds.
A Lack Of Unity
Last Friday, in a joint statement, David Scott, House Agriculture Ranking Member, and Debbie Stabenow, Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Chairwoman, referenced the requirement for bipartisan support and pushed back on the current farm bill text.
“House Republicans are undermining this goal by proposing policies that split the broad, bipartisan coalition that has always been the foundation of a successful farm bill,” Stabenow and Scott said.
Thatcher said this is the most partisan start to a farm bill that she has seen. “Farm bills have often been agriculture all melding together,” she said. “That doesn’t mean you would get every Republican and every Democrat on the committee supporting it, but you certainly get two-thirds of them or three-fourths of them that say, ‘Yeah, let’s move this forward.’”
Despite the lack of unity between the two parties, Thatcher said she believes that “People are hopeful there are three or four moderate Democrats in heavy agricultural districts who will feel compelled to vote for the farm bill, even if the Democratic leadership is saying ‘No, don’t vote for a Republican drafted bill,’” she told AgriTalk guest host Michelle Rook.
Thatcher added that it’s imperative legislators continue to keep the farm bill process moving – because of how much time the Congressional Budget Office will need in order to score rural development provisions.
AgriTalk guest host, Michelle Rook, asked Thatcher if, ultimately, she anticipates the farm bill will get passed this year.
“I’m afraid not,” Thatcher said. “I hear a lot of people talking about, ‘Oh, we can do it in the lame duck Congress.’ But you know, I look at if we happen to get a Republican president or Republican Senate or a Republican House…there’s no incentive to move a farm bill,” she added. “They would wait until they got in charge in January to do something. And the same thing if you had a Democratic president. I think it’s an iffy bet.”
The complete discussion on AgriTalk can be heard here:
House GOP Farm Bill Provides Big Boost to Reference Prices; What You Need to Know
