Voting against the farm bill can invite electoral consequences, the president of the largest U.S. farm group wrote in an essay. “Rural America still packs an influential punch,” American Farm Bureau Federation president Zippy Duvall said, citing both the ouster of a Kansas congressman who voted against the 2014 farm bill and rural America’s pivotal role in President Trump’s election.
The House defeated the GOP-drawn farm bill last Friday, the second time that’s happened in five years. Thirty Republicans provided the decisive votes against the bill to demonstrate their demand for a vote on immigration controls. While the goal is worthy, wrote Duvall, “they are playing a dangerous game by using the farm bill as their bargaining chip.”
“I think sometimes our politicians forget that the ‘issues’ they debate mean much more to the people affected by them. For us, the farm bill isn’t an issue, it’s about our livelihood. … Be assured that rural Americans will remind them of that every chance we get — including election day.”
House Republican leaders say they will try to revive the farm bill by June 22 after resolving the immigration dispute.