Partisan gridlock and fallout from the November election could again force Congress to postpone key decisions for agriculture into 2025.
It’s not just the farm bill, but USDA and other spending bills are also stuck in months of political gridlock in a narrowly divided Congress. Those spending bills could still be stuck even in a post-election lame duck session. A 26 billion-dollar GOP ag spending bill was already mired in partisan conflict earlier this year.
That is Ag spending panel chair Andy Harris.
The stalled bill also took aim at SNAP and WIC, allowing for inflationary hikes, but increased dollars for Ag research, meat inspectors, pest control, broadband and tracking foreign US farmland buys.
Now, all of that is in limbo, as lawmakers again push back full-year funding decisions into December and a lame duck Congress.
But Republican Chip Roy’s protests changed nothing, while in the Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell lamented the lack of any votes on bipartisan committee spending bills.
That was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
