The Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduled to take up the Senate version of the farm bill on Thursday, August 6. A draft bill has made available for review by committee members and outside groups. The two key issues that have slowed action in the Senate - the authorization of year-round, voluntary sales of E15, and a one-year delay before certain states must begin sharing the benefit costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) with the federal government – have been addressed in the draft. While chairman John Boozman had initially intended to keep the contentious E15 issue out of the farm bill, corn state senators believe this is the best opportunity to resolve the issue and pushed for its inclusion. Of additional concern to LICA members in the committee’s draft is the diversion of nearly $2 billion in funding from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) below the levels Congress established just last year to cover other priorities.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) has come out in opposition to the E15 measure saying that, the Senate bill’s version differs from the House legislation (which API supported) in how it would handle small refinery exemptions under the Renewable Fuel Standard. API said, "The proposal included in the Senate farm bill fails to deliver that balanced approach, replacing it with flawed provisions that weaken America’s fuel supply instead of providing the long-term certainty consumers, farmers, biofuel producers and refiners need.”
On the other hand, the Farm Bureau and other groups have come out in strong support of the E15 provision.