Prospects for a lame duck farm bill don’t look much better than those before the November elections, according to ag lawmakers and lobbyists.
September will be full of debate over simply keeping the government funded. Congress returns after the elections for two weeks in November, possibly three weeks in December. United States Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) says spending and a must-pass defense bill are top of mind in the final legislative weeks of the year.
And then, there’s politics. Grassley concedes if the Senate flips to GOP control, Republicans might be more inclined to wait until the next Congress to get a farm bill more favorable to producers, unless Democrats relent.
Retiring Chair Debbie Stabenow has said repeatedly she won’t have her legacy be defined by reducing SNAP benefits to boost reference prices.
Either way, American Farm Bureau’s Joe Gilson says farmers have had enough.
Without a new farm bill more farms could be lost as USDA says farm income is down 23-percent in the last two-years and continues to drop.
