Congress may be forced to keep the 2018 farm law in operation into the new year because of “disingenuous and misleading” arguments by Republicans that are preventing progress on its replacement, said Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow. The new farm bill is nine months overdue so “it’s time to get real,” said Stabenow in a five-page statement.
“Republicans are breaking the farm and food coalition by falsely claiming that increased program cost for food security through SNAP has somehow taken resources away from farms or left farms out of the mix. Such a framing is disingenuous and misleading,” said Stabenow. Spending on SNAP and farm supports are determined by different factors.
A spokesman for Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, the senior Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, was not immediately available for comment.
The farm bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee a month ago would give the largest increases in crop subsidies to cotton, peanuts and rice — Southern crops — while wheat, corn, soybeans, and sorghum, grown mostly in the Plains and Midwest, would see much smaller gains, said Stabenow, Michigan Democrat.
“Both the farm and food safety net are important,” she said. “However, blatant and disingenuous attempts to pit one against the other in an attempt to boost taxpayer funded payments to only a handful of crops is not a pathway to success.”
The 2018 farm bill expired last Sept. 30 but Congress extended its life for an additional year. Another extension may be necessary if lawmakers cannot agree on the new farm bill in the near term.