Home Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-Pa.) is assembly with congressional leaders on agricultural coverage Thursday to attempt to safe a last-minute deal on passing the farm invoice.
Earlier Thursday, Thompson joined dozens of Home Republicans in urgent Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to schedule a vote on the large, five-year laws earlier than the tip of the yr.
Along with Thompson, the group assembly Thursday included Home Agriculture Committee rating member David Scott (D-Ga.), Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Senate Agriculture Committee rating member John Boozman (R-Ark.).
Thompson instructed The Hill this week that getting a deal within the lame-duck session is not “highly likely, but I’m an eternal optimist, and I’m going to work hard every day to make that happen.”
The farm invoice is about to run out Monday, Sept. 30, although funds is not going to start to peter out till the tip of the yr.
Progress towards a deal has been hamstrung by divisions between the events over the way to pay for elevated subsidies to massive business growers and proposed restrictions on the power of the federal authorities to lift cash for meals assist.
Whereas the Home Agriculture Committee has marked up and handed a draft invoice, the Senate Agriculture Committee has solely launched a abstract.
Whereas some lawmakers — together with Boozman — have prompt the concept of one other stopgap one-year invoice, this concept is unpopular within the farm sector, which has come to depend on the construction of the five-year farm invoice, and has needed to limp alongside on a one-year persevering with decision since final yr’s failure to interchange the 2018 farm invoice.
Earlier this month, representatives from greater than 300 agricultural teams flew in to Washington to foyer for a fast passage of a brand new invoice, and in Thursday’s letter, Home Republicans warned that the failure to cross a full five-year package deal would result in a “crisis” in farm nation.
Whereas an extension could also be essential, Thompson instructed The Hill he “didn’t want to send the wrong message: that we will not get a farm bill done in lame duck.”
“Our farmers need it,” he mentioned. “I mean, we are facing, by all all metrics, a farm and food crisis that’s exacerbating and only going to get worse — unless we show some leadership and provide some hope and certainty to the hardworking families to provide us food and fiber.”
Aris Folley contributed reporting for this story.
