Whether they are Democrats or Republicans, members of the House and Senate Agriculture committees routinely say the panels are the least partisan in Congress, even if the harmony is strained from time to time. In the weeks ahead, the infighting over President Biden’s two-part infrastructure package will test that comity on the Senate panel.
Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow said on Tuesday that the 11 Democrats on the committee will decide among themselves how to apportion the $135 billion in additional funding the USDA would receive as part of the $3.5 trillion budget resolution now under debate in the Senate. The money would be allotted to six areas, from child nutrition to clean energy and climate mitigation.
“I look forward to working with my Democratic colleagues on the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry to make sure the Build Back Better Budget has what our farmers, ranchers, and foresters need,” said Stabenow.
The 11 Republicans on the committee would be left out, she said, because they were unlikely to support the resolution. A short while later, a party-line vote of 50-49, with Democrats in the majority, allowed floor debate to begin on the budget resolution.
Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, the senior Republican on the committee, said he believed abandoning the committee’s bipartisan tradition was a recipe for disaster. He cited two-party support for President Biden’s nominees to serve as USDA executives and said, “I expect that we will continue to act with the same positive bipartisan spirit when we return from the break and consider additional nominees, budget reconciliation and other legislation that come before our committee.”
In May, Stabenow supported a $50 billion increase in USDA stewardship funding, saying during an online news conference, “We have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to expand these programs and build farm bill baseline at the same time.” The $50 billion increase, like the $135 billion in the budget resolution, would be stretched over a 10-year period. It would nearly double USDA outlays on soil, water, and wildlife conservation.
Stabenow has not said how the $135 billion, equal to a 9 percent increase in pre-pandemic spending by the USDA, would be spent. She said on Tuesday there would be a substantial investment in conservation.
According to the Senate Budget Committee, the money was to be divided among six areas: agriculture conservation, drought, and forestry programs, to help reduce carbon emissions and prevent wildfires; rural development and rural co-op clean energy investments; agricultural climate research and research infrastructure; the Civilian Climate Corps; child nutrition; and debt relief.
Democrats on the Agriculture Committee have met once already to discuss the money, said the Hagstrom Report.
The Senate passed a $1 trillion “hard” infrastructure bill, including $65 billion to expand broadband access to all Americans, on a bipartisan 69-30 roll call on Tuesday at midday. The bill was the first part of the two-part Biden plan. The second would focus on “soft” infrastructure, including an expansion of the summer food program and a program that provides free school meals to all children in high-poverty neighborhoods.
Immigration reform, including legal status for undocumented farmworkers, should be part of the so-called reconciliation bill that would be written as a result of passage of the budget resolution, said Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat. “As we write a reconciliation bill to create an equitable and sustainable economic recovery, we must include immigration reform.”
The House will return to work on Aug. 23, weeks earlier than scheduled, to vote on the budget resolution, assuming the Senate passes it soon, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Tuesday evening. “The Senate has passed its bipartisan infrastructure bill, which contains much of the American Jobs Plan’s investments, and it appears that it will also pass a budget resolution, which is a necessary step as we move toward a budget reconciliation bill that will allow us to implement the American Families Plan,” said Hoyer in a letter to lawmakers.