Agricultural News
House Ag Committee Passes FARRM by 35 to 11 Final Vote
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 06:14:21 CDT
The final vote came well after midnight in our nation's Capitol. And, it turned out to be a strong bipartisan vote for the Chairman of the Committee, Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas and the Ranking Minority Member, Collin Petterson of Minnesota. Initially, the announced vote was 35 to 9- then amended with two late no votes that brought the final recorded tally to 35 to 11- the vote that reported the Federal Agricultural Reform and Risk Management Act to the House floor favorably. A total of one hundred amendments were filed against the Chairman's Mark- many were withdrawn, many were defeated but there were a good number that were accepted to be folded into the final version of the legislation that could be considered by the full House.
The early focus was on the Commodity Title Number One and the Nutrition Title Number Four, with a crucial early vote coming when Amendment number 21 was offered by Representative McGovern of Massachusetts- a measure that would have restored the reductions in the SNAP program fully to the levels before farm bill work began- a total of $16.5 billion over ten years. This effort to wipe out almost half of the total budget savings in FARRM was defeated 15 to 31. Chairman Lucas defended the cuts made to the Nutrition program, saying that the reduction was a small amount of the total spending planned over the next ten years- and that no family that deserved Food Stamp benefits would be denied- they would simply not be automatically qualified but would have to show their level of need. If this amendment had passed, the savings in this bill would have been far smaller than proposed by the leadership- and would have likely had no chance of being considered for floor time by GOP leadership.
We have the audio of the last set of comments made by McGovern followed by the final word on that amendment as provided by Chairman Lucas- click on the LISTEN BAR at the bottom of this story to hear that exhange.
After the final vote to recommend to the full House this bill- the House Ag Committee released the following statement- attributed to Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas, Chairman of the Committee and Ranking Minority Member Collin Peterson:
"Today marked an important step forward in the development of the next farm bill. I appreciate the efforts of my colleagues and the bipartisan nature in which this legislation was written and approved. This is a balanced, reform-minded, fiscally responsible bill that underscores our commitment to production agriculture and rural America, achieves real savings, and improves program efficiency, said Chairman Frank Lucas.
"I'm pleased today's markup is behind us and we can continue to move the process forward. The current farm bill expires on September 30 and there only 13 legislative days before the August recess. Simply put, the House leadership needs to bring the farm bill to the floor for a vote. We should not jeopardize the health of our rural economies which, by and large, have remained strong the last few years. Our nation's farmers and ranchers need the certainty of a new five year farm bill and they need it before the current farm bill ends," said Ranking Member Collin Peterson
Click here for the Farm Bill page found on the House Ag Committee website to learn more about FARRM.
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