It’s the Republicans’ fault there was no farm bill this year, said the usually decorous Rep. David Scott, senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, as the House recessed for the year-end holidays. Says you, Republican staff workers responded on the internet.
The exchange, a congressional version of trash talking, was a rare display of friction in the generally behind-the-scenes work on the farm bill overseen by the “four corners”—the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees.
“Today, Republicans are going home for the holidays and leaving this critical agricultural legislation undone and without a plan to move forward,” said Scott on Thursday. By contrast, he pointed to Speaker Mike Johnson’s hopes, expressed in October, that the House would pass the farm bill this month, followed by negotiations with the Senate for language to send to the White House.
Staffers working for House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn Thompson accused Scott of talking out of both sides of his mouth. “This you?” they asked on social media, pointing to Scott’s support for an extension of the 2018 farm law through next Sept. 30.
Thompson “hopes to move a new farm bill by March,” said a published report on Thursday. Asked about the report, a Thompson aide said the chair “always said committee action would be predicated on securing floor time.” Asked if farm bill debate was scheduled for March or April, the aide said nothing was set in stone.
Farm bill negotiations have been at an impasse for months over crop subsidy levels, climate funding, and SNAP spending. Analysts see little reason to expect an accord soon. Thompson might decide to pursue a bill backed only by Republicans, said one.