Posted December 6, 2013
After a meeting on Wednesday, farm bill negotiators made major advances, but conferees say a deal is unlikely by Dec. 31.
The four top principal negotiators from the House and Senate Agriculture committees met in an hour-long closed-door meeting Wednesday, with both sides making important concessions, according to a Politico article available here. The House “moved off its position that all commodity subsidies be a function of a farmer’s planted acres” and the Senate “agreed to greater food stamp savings.”
“We’re making great progress, across the board we’re trying to bring it all together,” Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) told reporters. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) said, “We made great progress. We have more progress to make…Let us keep working.” The fact that “both chairs came out smiling was a healthy sign, and after weeks of floundering there was genuine hope that the pieces of a deal could be coming together.”
While negotiators have made major progress, hopes have faded that Congress can pass a bill by December 31. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX) was “encouraged” that a farm bill will pass, but was unsure that it would happen this year, according to an article by Agri-Pulse available here.
Conaway said, “I’m not sure that it’s physically possible to get the job done yet this year,” especially since the House is expected to leave December 13 and the Senate is expected to leave December 20.
This would mean that Congress will, again, need to pass a temporary extension to avert going over the “milk cliff” when the system reverts back to the 1949 permanent law, according to an article by the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune available here.
For more information on farm bills, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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