Posted October 22, 2013
 
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are optimistic that Congress will pass a farm bill late in October, but both anticipate a heavy political debate, according to an article by the Mankato Free Press available here.
 
Walz said he expects the bipartisan nature of the farm bill and the need for Congress to show it can work properly after the federal government shutdown to ensure a “grand bargain.”  Walz said “I think it is appropriate that the first big thing we work on together (after the shutdown) is a bipartisan law like the Farm Bill.”  Walz said he is focusing on legislation in the bill for conservation programs and energy programs such as biofuels.
 
Klobuchar said she hopes to keep the bill close to the Senate version passed last spring.  The Senate version contains only $4 billion in nutrition program cuts as opposed to the $40 billion in cuts recently passed by the House.
 
The Hill reports that the $1 trillion farm bill will “serve as the first test of how deeply the shutdown fight has damaged relations in Washington.”  The Hill article is available here.  Leaders of the Congressional agriculture committees are eager to finish the bill, which “could get wrapped into a year-end budget deal that replaces the automatic sequestration cuts.”
 
Finding common ground over the huge difference in funding allocated for nutrition programs will be a biggest hurdle during the conference.  Subsidy portions of the bill also have major differences – some say the biggest problem in the commodity title being the difference in how the House and Senate calculate target price subsidies.
 
Another major issue is that the House bill makes the 2013 farm bill the default permanent law.  Agricultural groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation oppose this measure.  Currently, if a farm bill is not passed every five years, the 1949 farm bill automatically takes effect.  This generally forces Congress to update and revise farm programs.
 
Other provisions at issue include means testing for crop insurance in the Senate bill and a House provision that prevents states from banning the sale of products based on a method of production (a measure aimed at state bans on eggs produced by hens in battery cages).

 

For more information on farm bills, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
 
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