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.
