A changing political environment for budgeting on Capitol Hill is posing new challenges for farm bill writers, who are already facing a daunting October 1st deadline to complete work on a new bill.
Right now within the GOP there are two camps that are butting heads regarding budgeting. A Senate GOP group ready to stick with fiscal year 2023 spending figures based on the House Speaker?s debt deal with the president, and rebellious House conservatives demanding deeper cuts.
American Farm Bureau?s director of government affairs Dustin Sherer says the fight over near-term spending cuts won?t have an immediate farm bill impact.
Most of the farm bill is automatic mandatory spending, like SNAP. However, appropriators have already pushed savings via expanded work requirements.
Longer-term, the McCarthy-Biden debt limit-budget deal leaves no new farm bill money, nor does it change political realities says Sherer.
With spending differences this year not just between the two parties but within a GOP that controls one chamber, time is running out to complete a farm bill. That means that the one-year extension of the previous farm bill continues to be on the table if the October 1st deadline is missed.
