House Farm Bill Passes
213-211, Senate to Vote on Its Version Soon
The House passed its version of the Farm Bill 213-211 on June 21st, meeting its June 22nd target date almost as narrowly as the bill passed.
Politico
reported that "eight Freedom Caucus members flipped their votes from last month
and voted in favor" of the bill. Twelve other Republicans and all of the Democrats present voted in opposition as well, but they collectively fell two votes short of the majority.
As for the Senate, following a nearly unanimous vote by its Agriculture Committee, the legislative body can now vote on its version of the Farm Bill. Senators have planned on voting before their recess for Independence Day according to
Roll Call
. Should it pass, members of both the House and Senate must form a conference committee and reconcile the differences between the
two versions of the bill before its expiration date, September 30th. The
committee will face the difficult task of negotiating whether or not to include
work requirements in the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP), limits on farm subsidies, and changes
to the conservation title.
One key change to the conservation title is that the House's version of the
Farm Bill increased the Conservation Reserve Program's limit to 29 million
acres, has a gross income cap of $900,000 for farmers in order to obtain subsidies, and requires able-bodied individuals between the ages of 18 and 59
to work in order to receive SNAP benefits. None of these provisions are
consistent with the Senate's bill that only increased the CRP's limit to 25
million acres, decreased the gross income cap to $700,000, and did not
change SNAP's work requirements.
If the House and Senate cannot negotiate a Farm Bill in a conference session
and the bill is not signed into law by the September 30th deadline,
"agriculture policy would revert to 1938 and 1949 farm bill laws, ending
many current farm programs and setting crop and dairy subsidy levels higher
than current levels and far above market prices,"
Roll Call
reported. It is more likely, however, that the Farm Bill receives a year-long extension if the
conference doesn't lead to a consensus bill.
For more information, please contact
Eric Heath
, Senior Policy Counsel for the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.