WASHINGTON D.C. — After spending time early this week trying to get the Farm Bill through the Rules Committee, House GOP leaders have now postponed a planned vote for this week and are sending the package back to the House Rules Committee for continued negotiations.
POLITICO’s Grace Yarrow and Meredith Lee Hill are reporting on Wednesday afternoon that after a Republican revolt during a procedural vote, leadership has decided to send the package back and focus on consideration of a key spy powers reauthorization and a budget plan for funding immigration enforcement agencies.
Yarrow and Hill report that lawmakers will hope to bring the Farm Bill back to the floor in May after the House takes a weeklong recess. Issues arose this week as hundreds of amendments and priorities were added to the package, some of which were sticking points for some GOP members. Year-round E15 legislation also appears to be an issue for some lawmakers, which was another reasoning for delaying a vote and continuing negotiations. Several House lawmakers told our team during a forum on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning that there was discussion on what the best way forward would be to include E15 legislation in the process.
Amy France, chair of the National Sorghum Producers, was on Capitol Hill this week with her counterparts at National Corn Growers Association and Growth Energy, trying to gain final support for E15 legislation.
“We were hitting all the offices, the maybes, the nos, trying to answer any questions,” says France. “And going into offices where they’re the urban districts and just saying, hey, this is an amendment for lower gas prices, period. End of story. This is going to help your your constituents at the pump. And then also continuing to tell a story of this eats bushels immediately and can make a difference in the markets for your ag world.” France added that “now is the time. We’ve been on the edge for way too many times and way too long. Now is the time to get it done. Farmers deserve a win.”
The thin margins continue to underscore the political tightrope Republican leaders are walking on a bill that touches nearly every corner of rural America — from commodity supports and crop insurance to nutrition assistance, conservation and biofuels — and that has eluded full reauthorization since the previous five-year statute expired and was carried forward by stopgap extensions.
Agricultural groups, many of which have been pressing for a new farm bill for years, spoke this week ahead of the procedural vote and a full floor vote and underscored the need to get this across the finish line.
“All signs are good right,” according to Duane Simpson, President and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. “There’s about 300 amendments that are being considered by the by the Rules Committee and then we’ll see hopefully this week it’ll be on the floor and we had a good bipartisan vote coming out of committee. We hope to grow that bipartisan vote as we send it over to the Senate and get some momentum so we can get over in the Senate and hopefully get this done before the end of the Congress.”
When it comes to the Senate prospects, Simpson reminds those in agriculture that a lot was done last summer in the One Big Beautiful Bill. “Yeah it’s important to remember that we’ve done about 80% of the farm bill that hits farmers pockets,” according to Simpson. “That was already done in reconciliation, you won’t start seeing that till around October when the ARC/PLC payments start coming in but that was done already. So what’s left in the farm bill and finishing the farm bill is important but I think when it gets to the Senate they’re gonna focus first on getting additional farmer bridge assistance out of out to farmers in the short term and then looking for opportunities to get to to get to 60 votes to get that across the Senate.”
