Former House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson is calling on House GOP leaders to find the votes to pass the next farm bill not in the conservative flank of the Republican Party, but among the chamber's more moderate Democrats.
Speaking on this week’s Agri-Pulse Newsmakers, former House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson acknowledged a farm bill won’t be done by the end of September, when funding for many farm bill programs expires. But if lawmakers can’t come together to make something happen by December, then it will become a “bigger problem.”
Peterson says both sides are working on “noncontroversial stuff” right now; bigger ticket items can start to be addressed closer to when the farm bill might ultimately move.
One of those more controversial provisions is certain to be how the legislation handles the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This week, Democrats on the House Ag Committee sent a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., warning him if the GOP continues the SNAP reforms pursued by many conservatives, it could jeopardize the passage of a farm bill.
“[Democrats] are just asking for not undermining the program,” Peterson said.
Some GOP members are pushing for reforms beyond the eligibility changes enacted in the debt ceiling deal secured earlier this summer between McCarthy and President Joe Biden.
Peterson noted this issue has caused problems in past farm bill debates on the House floor, specifically citing the farm bills defeated in the chamber in 2013 and 2018. If Republicans continue to push for more changes, Peterson cautioned, “they'll have another failure.”
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“I had to scrap a lot of things that I wanted to do because that was the only way I could get a bill done,” Peterson, the House Ag chair during the 2008 farm bill process, said. “And that's kind of what they're gonna have to do here.”
Peterson insisted there are “40, 50 Democrats, maybe more than that … that want to get a farm bill done.”
Tara Smith, a lobbyist with the Torrey Advisory Group, echoed Peterson's sentiment that a farm bill will not be done by Sept. 30. “There is still some hope” for action by the end of the year, she said, but “even that could be a challenge.”
Farm policy consultant Ferd Hoeffner says if floor action can take place in either chamber “that would be a real sign of progress” and would be a “precursor to being able to approve a bill [by] early spring of 2024.”
This week's full Agri-Pulse Newsmakers can be viewed on Agri-Pulse.com.
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