With House and Senate negotiators currently attempting to reconcile the House and Senate farm bills, agricultural leaders from both houses of Congress are sending clear signals to leaders of the House Budget Committee that farm policy should be left in the hands of farm leaders.
For two years, the farm bill has been stalled in Congress due to budgetary concerns. While both the House and Senate bills reduce federal farm spending, the House bill goes significantly further than its Senate counterpart in cutting nutritional spending. With the House pushing for up to ten times as many food stamps cuts as the Senate, some politicians are doubtful that a bill will ever work its way through the conference committee.
As such, some members of the House have suggested ceding farm policy to the Budget Committee as it prepares new federal spending guidelines.
These suggestions have riled some members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees who are eager to defend their turf.
“The budget committee will not be writing the farm bill,” said Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow. “We will write; we will edit; we will offer responsible deficit reduction.”
“You can’t have our money if you don’t take our policy,” said House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas.
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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer