Farm bill: next steps

From SAF: 

After the House last week passed its version of a Farm Bill, the good news is that House and Senate agriculture committee leaders are talking this week, and the agriculture community remains cautiously optimistic that collectively they will find a way to pass a new Farm Bill.

The Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA), including SAF, strongly supports passage of a full bill this year, rather than just another one- or two-year extension. Programs important to floriculture and other specialty crops, like the Specialty Crop Research Initiative and the National Clean Plant Network, remain unfunded unless a new Farm Bill is passed.

“We are delighted that the agriculture leaders in Congress continue to talk, and we very much hope that Congress can come to agreement on a full bill,” says SAF’s Lin Schmale. “It is essential to our growers and our rural communities that the specialty crop research, block grants and other programs, including programs to fight invasive pests and plant diseases, continue with certainty over the next five years. Without a new Farm Bill, we don’t have that assurance.”

Last week, the House split its bill, after very contentious debate, passing only the agriculture programs of the bill and sending that version to the Senate, leaving the nutrition and food stamp titles for later. Yesterday, the Senate sent its own earlier-passed full bill, S. 954, back to the House with a request to go to conference under the Senate bill number. That bill may then remain parked in the House, while leaders there decide how to deal with the nutrition issue – but the process of discussions leading to conference can begin, rather than waiting for the House to decide on the nutrition and SNAP (“food stamp”) provisions.

House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R-3-OK) issued a memo to House Republicans on Tuesday, saying that the House may consider a separate nutrition bill “in the very near future” but that informal discussions between the House and Senate on the overall farm bill “can and will begin immediately.”

The Committee’s Ranking Democrat, Collin Peterson (D-7-MN) was less optimistic, but all Senate and House agriculture leaders have expressed strong support for moving a bill this year. A working group organized by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-7-VA) reportedly has begun meeting to discuss a bill that would slash the SNAP (“food stamp”) portion of the nutrition provisions that were omitted from the House bill.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), a champion of specialty crops and of farm bill passage, said earlier this week that “all farmers’ organizations, everyone who cares about the farm bill, needs to work with us to show that there is strength not only in rural America, but in the agricultural economy across the country.” She added that if the conference has not started before the August break, then “when members are home in August, at every single town meeting a hand needs to go up,” asking representatives to support a comprehensive, bipartisan bill.