Glenn Thompson

The farm bill coalition — the rural and urban alliance credited with carrying farm bills to enactment — "is a one-sided talking point," said House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson on Tuesday in insisting on a $53 billion increase in farm subsidies and cuts in SNAP. Time is running out for passage of the new farm bill this year, and farm groups, silent for weeks, are now calling for prompt congressional action.

House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn Thompson would funnel $10 billion in food stamp cuts into an expansion of trade promotion and horticulture programs as part of the new farm bill, said Republican staff workers on Thursday. One of them called opponents of SNAP cuts “hunger weirdos” who “use poor people as props.” (No paywall)

House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson, who frequently injects red-meat messaging into his public comments, says he expects the Senate to pick up the pace in writing a farm bill. He has set a date, May 23, for a committee vote on his package, though there is no Senate mark-up session in sight.

All 24 Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee signed a letter telling panel leaders on Monday "it would ultimately be a disservice to American farmers" to hijack the $20 billion earmarked in the farm bill for climate-mitigation projects. Some lawmakers, with Republicans the most vocal, would use the money to fatten the crop subsidy system.

Farmers are clamoring to enroll in the USDA's climate mitigation programs, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Tuesday, while leaders of the Senate and House Agriculture committees made it official: December is the new target for passage of the farm bill. The 2018 farm law expires on Sept. 30, but there is little peril until dairy subsidies terminate on Dec. 31, said House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson.

Congress will have to extend temporarily the lifespan of the 2018 farm bill because it will miss the Sept. 30 deadline for enacting its successor, said House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson. It was the first direct acknowledgement by one of the "four corners" of farm policy — the leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees — that the 2023 farm bill would be late.

Overriding nutritional guidelines, the House Education Committee approved, 26-13, a bill to allow schools to serve whole milk as part of the school lunch program. "For too long, milk has been demonized," said sponsor Rep. Glenn Thompson, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and a senior Republican on the Education panel.

In a camaraderie-filled meeting, Chairman Glenn Thompson said that everyone on the House Agriculture Committee was a member “of the farm team,” and his list of priorities for the committee put conventional agriculture and rural development first. “We certainly will have our work cut out for us as far as reauthorizing the farm bill,” he said on Wednesday.

The incoming Republican chairman of the House Agriculture Committee said the new farm bill should protect the federally subsidized crop insurance program and "maybe we need to see about strengthening it."

With a farm bill fight brewing over President Biden’s climate agenda, House Republican leaders named Pennsylvania Rep. Glenn Thompson chair of the House Agriculture Committee on Thursday. Thompson, who wants to expand farm supports, has accused the administration of acting as “a lone wolf” in setting up its $3.5 billion proposal to develop climate-smart commodities.

Congress could fail to pass the upcoming 2023 farm bill if Republicans try to mangle the food stamp program, warned House Agriculture chairman David Scott on Monday. Speaking at a farm conference, Scott said the farm-and food-coalition of rural and urban groups was vital to enactment of the farm bill, panoramic legislation that ranges from farm and stewardship subsidies to SNAP, agricultural research and rural development.

Rep. David Scott of Georgia soundly defeated a California rival in a vote among majority-party Democrats on Thursday to become the first Black chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Scott, who represents a suburban Atlanta district with 313 farms, pledged to tackle an array of issues, most prominently climate change and the rural-urban split, in the new session of Congress opening on Jan. 3.