Congressional farm bill negotiations may begin as soon as next week, now that congressional attention has been shifted away from the government shutdown and debt ceiling crisis.
For the past several weeks, the focus in Washington has been centered on potential financial crises. With Congress unable to pass a continuing budget resolution, the federal government, including the US Department of Agriculture, was forced to shut down. In addition, congressional battles over raising the debt ceiling, the legal limit that the US government is empowered to borrow, threatened a government default.
With the House of Representatives recently agreeing on a Senate bill funding the government through early next year and increasing the debt ceiling, Congress has been able to get back to work and focus on a number of legislative priorities that have been lost in the shuffle.
At the top of that list is joint House and Senate negotiations over the 2013 Farm Bill. “Depending on the House and Senate schedules, the first, formal conference meeting could be scheduled as early as next week,” said an aide to House Agriculture Committee chairman Frank Lucas.
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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer