House Ag Committee Democrats told Agri-Pulse they plan to offer a farm bill amendment to allow year-round sales of E15, even though the proposal is likely to be ruled out of order.
"I hope tomorrow [Wednesday] they will allow us to have a very clear conversation about E15 and whether or not my Republican colleagues actually support this," said the committee's top Democrat, Angie Craig, who is running for Senate in Minnesota. "They seem to be very testy regarding germaneness."
House Ag Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Penn., used his opening remarks Tuesday to make clear that year-round E15 is under the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee, reiterating his previous comments to Agri-Pulse.
“I encourage you all to vote based on what is in the bill, instead of based on what is not in the bill,” Thompson said. “The ranking member has denounced this bill because it doesn’t contain year-round E15 … had the ranking member ever broached those topics with me beforehand, I would have informed her that this is not the Energy and Commerce Committee.”
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Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., told Agri-Pulse just before midnight leaving the markup Tuesday she expects an amendment to add year-round E15 to the proposed farm bill, even with Thompson saying it's not germane because it is not in the committee’s primary jurisdiction.
“We're going to continue to raise it until we get it done,” Budzinski said. “So I would expect we'll be talking about it tomorrow [Wednesday].”
As chairman, Thompson will likely find the amendment non-germane when it's introduced. However, a majority vote from the committee – which would require support from Republican lawmakers to buck the chairman's decision – could overturn the ruling to allow the provision to be included in the farm bill.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told Agri-Pulse Monday the upper chamber's farm bill will likely align closely with the House GOP version, but could also feature language to authorize year-round sales of E15. Senate Ag Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., said the committee plans to mark up a farm bill in the coming months.
While Thompson regularly touts that the nation’s oldest continuously operating oil refinery in the United States is located in his district, the Pennsylvania Republican has also vocally supported year-round E15.
Frustration is boiling over from Midwest lawmakers and agriculture groups who have been pushing for the E15 provision, which has been close to the finish line several times.
The recently formed Rural Domestic Energy Council – the last ditch option to push the provision after it was left out of the government spending package in January – originally had a goal of submitting a legislative proposal and considering legislation in the House by the end of February.
When Craig was asked if she believes there are enough votes to get the provision into the farm bill, she said "we're gonna fight hard and we'll see what happens."
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