House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson is ready to move another extension of the 2018 farm bill, acknowledging to reporters that lawmakers are unlikely to consider the measure in the lame duck session. “We’re prepared for an extension,” Thompson said.
Meanwhile, Senate Ag Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow has finally released the text of her farm bill. You recall that Senator Stabenow did not run for reelection.but it’s DOA. For starters, the bill doesn’t include reference price increases of the size that Republicans want, and it contains no cuts to the nutrition title.
The legislation would force Donald Trump to get congressional approval to use the Commodity Credit Corporation to compensate farmers in the case of a new trade war or for other reasons.
Thompson (R-PA) continues to say the CCC restriction is needed, even though Trump will be in the White House. “I found it incredible the Senate included the CCC provision in her draft given the fact that I was the bad guy for proposing that now for a year, over two years,” Thompson told reporters.
Stabenow (D-MI) told reporters she offered to agree to the CCC restriction back in September but that Republicans stood their ground on other provisions unacceptable to her. “Then finally, we heard from some folks … at the end of October that they wanted to wait to see if President Trump was elected and what he wanted to do,” Stabenow said.
Stabenow described the bill as her “vision” for what the next farm bill should look like. The Senate Ag Committee’s top Republican, John Boozman (R-AR) said the partisan proposal from Stabenow was “insulting.”