Some crops will get bigger reference price increases than others, Thompson says
If Congress follows his lead, some commodities will get larger increases in reference prices than others, but the new farm bill will provide a robust safety net for all producers, said House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn Thompson on Wednesday. Thompson said his proposed package, to be released in coming weeks, would remove some of the “guardrails” that limit the use of climate mitigation funding.
Ten ag panelists on list of vulnerable House Democrats
The campaign committee for House Democrats lists 10 members of the House Agriculture Committee among 29 "Frontline Democrats" in a fundraising appeal. "We must defend all 29 vulnerable Democrats running for re-election" if the party is to win a House majority in the Nov. 5 general election, said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Allow ag processors to hire guestworkers, says House group
Congress should expand the agricultural guestworker program, now limited to seasonal jobs, to include employment at year-round processing plants, said a working group composed of House Agriculture Committee members on Thursday. “One thing that has become clear is the need for dairy producers, meat processors, sugar processors, forestry, ranchers, and others to have access to a steady and legal workforce,” said the lawmakers.
Vilsack and lawmakers spar over farm economy
During a sometimes prickly House hearing on Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urged lawmakers to buckle down and write a farm bill that does not cut SNAP or climate funds. Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee said the Biden administration has overlooked the needs of the large-scale farmers who produce the bulk of U.S. crops and livestock.
The ‘four corners’ struggle to square the farm bill circle
House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson declared, "I am at the table" to write the new farm bill — with multibillion-dollar cuts already rejected by Democrats on the committee. "I hope my colleagues across the aisle join me," said Thompson, as farm bill leaders clashed over the direction of the moribund legislation.
Stabenow says ‘the time to act is now’ on farm bill
Farm-state lawmakers should take advantage of an offer of billions of dollars in new resources and negotiate the new farm bill now, said Senate Agriculture Committee chairwoman Debbie Stabenow. The Michigan Democrat called for action following a USDA forecast of a steep drop in farm income and a Congressional Budget Office forecast of lower SNAP costs for years to come.
Year-end farm bill trash talk in the House
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.
House Agriculture chair has prostate cancer
Rep. Glenn Thompson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, said on Tuesday that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, the second-most common cancer among men. “I will tackle this head-on,” he vowed in a statement.
Ag committee Republicans vote against funding bill
Eleven of the 29 Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee voted against the government funding bill that includes a one-year extension of the 2018 farm law, House records show. The extension would give the Senate and House Agriculture committees more time to write the next farm bill.
Farm labor panel focuses on guestworkers
The H-2A visa program for farm workers needs to be modernized, said the leaders of a working group composed of one third of the members of the House Agriculture Committee on Tuesday. An interim report by the working group said growers turn to the H-2A visa as a last resort because of its "high costs and regulatory complexities," and that agricultural labor is increasingly difficult to find.
Farm bill extension needed because of GOP extremism, says Scott
Pointing to "extremism and cynicism" among House Republicans, the Democratic leader on the House Agriculture Committee called for a one-year extension of current law to allow time to write a bipartisan farm bill. Meanwhile, House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson told a home-state newspaper to expect a farm bill vote in the House during December.
Ag leaders discussing farm bill extension
The senior Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee “is having conversations about an extension” of the 2018 farm law into the new year, said a spokesperson on Wednesday. Farm leaders in Congress have said they intend to enact a new farm bill by late December, but a legislative logjam is growing on Capitol Hill.
Austin Scott’s brief bid for speaker spotlights futility of rural leaders
Georgia Rep. Austin Scott, a senior member of the House Agriculture Committee, was shunted aside by fellow Republicans in his one-day bid to become speaker of the House. Scott, a mainstream conservative, said he would support Rep. Jim Jordan, who won the GOP nomination on a 121-81 vote, when the House votes this week on a successor to Kevin McCarthy.
Lawmaker says farm bill should be split in two: SNAP and agriculture
A decade after the House briefly put the idea into play, a senior Republican on the House Agriculture Committee said the far-ranging farm bill should be divided into two separate pieces of legislation: SNAP and everything else. SNAP, which cost $119 billion last year, has become “an emotional, political issue” that taints consideration of farm supports, said Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia.
House Republicans court defeat of farm bill with SNAP talk, say Democrats
The 2023 farm bill is headed for defeat if Republican leaders meddle with SNAP, said Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee on Monday, pointing to floor votes that delayed enactment of the 2014 and 2018 bill. It was the second warning by the committee’s Democrats against additional cuts in food stamps following revisions in the debt limit deal in June.
Farm bill ‘this year’ seems more likely than farm bill ‘on time’
Over the past couple of months, the common target for enactment of the new farm bill has become "this year," rather than the Sept. 30 expiration of the current law. Chairman Glenn Thompson of the House Agriculture Committee said on Tuesday that Sept. 30 was becoming uncomfortably close on the calendar.
SNAP error rate soars to highest in years
The error rate of SNAP over- and underpayments — 11.54 percent — "is unacceptable and threatens the integrity of the program," said the leaders of the Senate and House Agriculture committees, who oversee food stamps. The error rate in fiscal 2022 was the highest in years and 4 points higher than before the pandemic.
‘Early stages’ of farm bill negotiations with House, says Boozman
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell all but ruled out new funding for the 2023 farm bill on Tuesday while the lead Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee said "we're in the early stages of negotiations with the House" on the legislation. Neither committee has taken a step in public to write a successor to the 2018 farm law, which expires on September 30.