Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn.
House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., today asked House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., for a written commitment to bring up the farm bill on the House floor before he will agree to help develop the bill this year.

“Given the behavior of the Republican leadership and their treatment of the House Agriculture Committee in the previous Congress, I believe it is only fair for me to ask for a written commitment that your leadership team will find floor time during this Congress if the committee marks-up a new five-year farm bill,” Peterson said.

“I would also expect it should not take more than a month for your team to determine the appropriate time for floor consideration and to announce that date publicly,” Peterson wrote in letters to Boehner and Cantor released today.

In the letters, Peterson recounted the development of the House Agriculture Committee farm bill and its passage through the committee after consideration of more than 60 amendments.

He also noted that Boehner had said before being elected speaker that he would leave bill writing up to the committees, but said he did not follow that practice.

“Given your long-standing opposition to farm programs and previous farm bills, it was no surprise that there were provisions in the bill that you could not support,” Peterson wrote.

“But instead of allowing those objections to be aired in an open debate and letting the House ‘work its will,’ the Republican leadership bottled up the committee’s farm bill and drafted alternatives in the speaker’s and majority leader’s offices, bypassing both the chairman and members of the Agriculture Committee and making a mockery of regular order,” Peterson wrote.

He also called the leadership’s view that there were not enough votes to pass the bill “patently false.”

Peterson added, “The leadership team never conducted a whip count, never asking members whether they would vote for or against the committee package. I brought together members from both parties to conduct a count, and we found enough votes to pass the bill.”

He also asked Boehner and Cantor to appoint conferees and hold a conference with the Senate in public, as then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., did in 2008 when Peterson was chairman.

Without these commitments, Peterson said, he sees “no reason why the House Agriculture Committee should undertake the fool’s errand to craft another long-term farm bill.”

Rep. Peterson Letter to Rep. Boehner
Rep. Peterson Letter to Rep. Cantor