Story by Matt Kaye, Berns Bureau Washington
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota says partisan fights over the president’s nominees are eating up the time needed to do a five-year farm bill this year. There’s no denying where the Senate GOP leader stands on doing a five-year farm bill that’s eluded bipartisan consensus for two years.
“I would love to get the elements of the farm bill that didn’t get done in the One Big Beautiful Bill dealt with in a normal way,” according to Senator Thune. He says a “ton” of farm bill safety net provisions were included in the huge tax and spending bill, from improved reference prices and crop insurance to livestock disaster aid and conservation. But doing a farm bill this year will take bipartisan cooperation that Senator Thune complains is not there.
“But remember, it’s hard to find time to do things on the floor when you’re spending all your time on nominations, which is where we are right now,” according to Senator Thune. “And if the Democrats, they can change that if they want to. But it’s very hard to do substantive legislation at a time when we’re dealing with personnel 24-7, which is the situation we find ourselves in, right now.”
Senator Thune charges that Democrats are slowing nominations to a crawl, as the Senate faces a fiscal year deadline September 30th for spending bills and a lapsing farm bill extension. He was also trying to package three spending bills, including USDA, into one so-called ‘minibus’ to pass and save time when Congress returns from its regular August recess.
SOURCE: NAFB NEWS SERVICE
