Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow recently expressed her frustration at the repeated refusals in the House of Representatives to pass a serious farm bill.
Stabenow, the head of the Senate Agriculture Committee, has spent the past few years pushing farm legislation through the Senate. Despite contending with serious dysfunction in the upper house (particularly the explosive growth in the number of filibusters), Stabenow has managed to work with Democrats and Republicans to pass two Senate farm bills in the past two years.
Each time a bill has passed the Senate, however, it goes to die in the House. Last year, Speaker John Boehner refused to allow farm legislation onto the floor for a vote, killing the bill in committee. This year, he allowed Representatives to vote on the House bill (which divorced food stamp funding from farm legislation and has virtually no chance of passing the Senate).
The continued insistence on the part of House Republicans to gut nutritional subsidies, plus the fact that they have not yet appointed members to a conference/reconciliation committee, has convinced Stabenow that House leaders are not serious about passing a new farm bill.
“This is wasted time and effort,” Stabenow said. “I believe this is an effort to stop a Farm Bill from being passed and everyone who cares about agriculture in the House of Representatives needs to stand up and indicate they are tired of this.”
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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer