Agricultural News
Mary Kay Thatcher on the Farm Bill - I Think Its Gonna Happen This Time
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 10:52:08 CST
There are a lot of signals that have come "on background" as well as have been reported by Roll Call, Politico, DTN and others- and virtually all of those signals point to a likely release of a Farm Bill Conference Report later today, with the hope that the House Leadership will be able to schedule a vote on Wednesday of this week. Senate action could follow in the next couple of weeks.
On Monday morning- Mary Kay Thatcher of the American Farm Bureau told Mike Adams at Agri-Talk "I do think it's gonna happen this time" and that "and it sure looks like they're gonna ask the conferees to sign the Conference Report this afternoon. It's not going a meeting where you will have up or down votes as I understand it- but they will sign the Conference Report."
David Rogers with Politico explains the mood of the ship- "Going into Sunday night, disputes continued over livestock regulations. But afternoon staff briefings were already being held on the proposed agreement, and the hope was to call the conferees together for their signatures on Monday.
"Indeed, the mood was such that no one believed any longer that more time would help; instead, it was judged better to grab the opportunity for House action this week. And if the farm bill is filed Monday night, the leadership is proposing to call it up as early as Wednesday, a fast turnaround for a measure given up as dead by many just months ago."
Phillip Brasher with Roll Call and CQ tweeted Sunday evening that "Farm Bill Conference Report due Monday evening- BUT COOL, King and GIPSA not settled yet." The reference to King is the Steve King amendment that would prohibit states from issuing regulations on how ag products may be produced in other states in order to be sold in their own state- if that regulation is at odds with federal regs. This measure is in response to the California law that will dictate how the chicken industry may produce eggs that extends to processors outside of California.
If the Conference Report is released later today- it will be historic as it will be a major reform in the federal farm safety net, it will greatly consolidate and streamline conservation programs and it will rein in the huge runup in nutrition spending seen in the first term of the Obama Administration.
Keith Good with Farm Policy.Com has a good overview on this Monday morning- click here to read- and be watching our tweets as well as our website during the day to see what develops- if something breaks- we hope to be visiting with Chairman Frank Lucas and will be posting his comments assuming a conference report is issued.
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