Passing a long-overdue farm bill is tough enough given partisan differences over funding farm versus feeding programs, made worse by election-year politics. Add in fights over languishing spending bills, border security, foreign military aid and a major tax bill, and farm bill odds look even dimmer this year.
West Virginia GOP Senator Shelly Moore Capito is one of the appropriators.
“The farm bill. There’s another major piece of legislation that’s coming before us that impacts food supply, nutrition, our Ag community, and many, many, many, many jobs all across this country. And yet, we’re in another extension.”
Capito says the extension came after the 2018 farm bill expired four months ago, and writing a new one’s been held up by appropriations gridlock likely to continue at least into March and two new shutdown deadlines.
“In the last 13 months, we’ve only spent eight hours on appropriations. This is a major responsibility for the Senate and the House and the president to get this right every year. We are now six months behind.”
With only short-term stop-gap bills keeping the government funded.
House Ag Chair Glenn Thompson has said he wants to start farm bill action in March, but has made getting available floor time a condition. Capito says that time will hinge on ending a spending standoff between the House GOP and Senate Democrats as one side tries to wait out the other.
“Six months ago, we will have passed out of committee every single bill. And yet, except for the three we passed in, I believe in late October, early November, no action – crickets – by the leadership here.”
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