Three weeks remain in the lame-duck session and farm bill negotiators are at odds over the forestry title of the farm bill despite hopes of enacting the bill this year. Vermont Sen. Pat Leahy puts the blame on the Trump administration and House Republicans for seeking “extremely partisan provisions on behalf of a small minority in the timber industry.”
Going into the holiday weekend, President Trump called for the farm bill to give the Interior and Agriculture departments expanded authority to remove diseased and insect-infested trees on federal land, and to let counties and tribes perform management services on Forest Service land. “With proper forest management, we can stop the devastation constantly going on in California,” said Trump.
Leahy, one of four Democrats who are Senate negotiators on the farm bill, said the administration was using California wildfires to seek approval of “crass, cynical and unaccountable logging of the public’s national forests.” Congress expanded in March the tools available to the government for fire prevention, including removal of fuels on fire-prone land, said Leahy, who called for bipartisan compromise on the forestry title.
Negotiations have stalled repeatedly over provisions of the farm bill that have nothing to do with the headline issue of House Republican proposals for stricter work requirements for SNAP recipients.