Frustration continues to simmer as evidence continues to mount that legislators in Washington are unmotivated to move forward on a new farm bill. Farm bills typically last five years and have historically enjoyed bipartisan collaboration. The current legislation, which went into effect in 2018, was set to expire in the fall of 2023 before being granted a one-year extension by Congress. The current farm bill expires September 30, which is also the deadline for Congress to pass budget bills, further complicating matters.
The House Committee on Agriculture completed a markup of its version of the bill – which has received generally high marks from agriculture groups – on May 24, but it has not yet been brought for debate on the House floor. While members of the Senate Committee On Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, most notably chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan), have repeatedly said passing the farm bill is a priority, no legislation has been formally put forward from that body.
Speaking to members of the press at the Democratic National Convention in August, Stabenow expressed concerns about the House bill, chiefly decreased funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and a perceived lack of support within the House of Representatives for the current proposal.
“Unfortunately, they passed something that takes money off the nutrition title, which we never do,” she said. “… We’ve yet to get anything written down as a proposal. We hear concerns about our bill, but I’ve had no on-paper proposals from the other side. So we’re trying to start there. It appears they’re deferring to the House that doesn’t have the votes to pass their bill.”
Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), who sits on the House ag committee, believes the Senate needs to step up and take any kind of action on the farm bill. “The Senate has kind of a laundry list of things they’ve talked about; very little of it is actual legislation,” he said.
Members on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers of Congress acknowledge that passing such massive legislation in the heat of a presidential election cycle is a daunting task. However, all parties continue to express optimism that a new farm bill will get done before the end of the year, though no legislation is likely to cross the finish line prior to the Nov. 5 election.
“My goal is to get it signed by the current president and executed by the next president,” House ag committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-Pennsylvania) told producers at the Farm Progress Show in August.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is less optimistic. He expects another one-year farm bill extension to be included in the temporary spending bill Congress is likely to pass in the coming weeks.
“I think we’d be better off if we had a five-year farm bill," Grassley said, "But we don’t; that isn’t going to happen.”
