Stabenow fears House will wait to send farm-only bill to Senate
July 15, 2013 | 06:45 PM
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said today she feared the House Republican leadership would not send the farm-program-only bill to the Senate until after the House has passed a nutrition bill, and urged conservation leaders to deliver a message to the House this week that leaders should deliver the bill, appoint conferees and prepare for a bipartisan farm bill.
“We will pass it no matter what happens in the crazy House,” Stabenow told the leaders of the National Association of Conservation Districts, who were in town for their summer conference.
“All eyes are on the U.S. House of Representatives to see if they are going to understand what this is all about,” Stabenow told reporters in a telephone news conference an hour later.
House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., made the same points in radio interviews, but appeared less optimistic about finishing the bill.
“I do not see a clear path to resolution here,” Peterson told AgriTalk.
Stabenow cited a statement by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., on the House floor Thursday evening as evidence that the House leadership will not send the farm-program-only to the Senate.
Asked by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., how the House would proceed on the farm bill, Cantor said he and other members of the leadership “are in discussions about how to expedite an agreement on the farm bill.”
“Certainly it is our intention to act with dispatch to bring to the floor, dealing with the SNAP program, that portion of what was traditionally the farm bill,” Cantor said. “We intend to bring that vehicle to the floor at some point in the near future.”
Stabenow told the conservation leaders she was giving them “marching orders” to tell House leadership it needs to send the farm-program-only bill to the Senate now so that conference can begin because time is running short before the current farm bill expires on September 30.
She also said that if the House does not allow conference to start before the August break, then “when members are home in August, at every single town meeting a hand needs to go up asking” the member to support a comprehensive bipartisan bill with strong conservation and conservation compliance.”
“I hope there is an outcry if we haven’t been able to even get to conference by August,” Stabenow added.
“All farmers organizations, everyone who cares about the farm bill, needs to work with us to show that there is strength not only in rural America, but in the agricultural economy across the country.”
She also noted that the lack of a farm bill had played a role in Senate races last year. Although Stabenow did not name names, political analysts have said House Republican intransigence on the farm bill was a key issue in the elections of Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana.
Stabenow also noted that commodity and conservations groups had reached an “historic” agreement on conservation compliance that is included in the Senate bill.
Stabenow said she had spoken with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., but that he had been unable to tell her exactly what would happen next because the strategy comes from the House leadership.
She congratulated Lucas and House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., for putting together a bipartisan bill, but she added, “It is stunning to me what has happened in the House.”
Instead of “doing what’s always done” — forming a consensus blocking amendments that would break the agreement, the House leadership “did not listen to the House Agriculture leaders. They put on amendments that took votes away, that began to collapse the whole thing.”
In her news conference, Stabenow also said that the House provisions to repeal the 1938 and 1949 laws and make the 2013 commodity title permanent law is “a very serious issue.” Among agriculture groups, she said, “this ranks very high, if not the top concern.”
Noting that the bill would make the commodity title permanent but not do the same for conservation and other programs, she said that this provision should concern “anyone who cares about conservation and anything other than the commodity title.”
A farm bill without the nutrition title would not pass the Senate and President Barack Obama would not sign it, she said.
There has been talk that food stamps, officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, would continue without the farm bill, but Stabenow said that passing a farm bill without nutrition policy would weaken the program and leave it vulnerable to fights over funding in the appropriations process.
Stabenow also made the point that a farm bill without a nutrition title would not include the reforms that the Senate has put in its bill. She also asked if House members who do not support the Senate nutrition title “want to continue the possibility” that lottery winners can continue to get food stamps, that college students living at home can get food stamps and that retailers can still give people cash for their benefits “so that they can turn around and buy drugs.”
Stabenow also said she would defend the Senate dairy title that dairy farmers like and that was the same in the House Agriculture Committee-passed bill, but changed on the House floor.
Peterson, who wrote the original dairy title in conjunction with the National Milk Producers Federation, said “I have been trying to be reasonable but given that nobody else is being reasonable,” that he would “demand” that the original program be included in the conference report.
“We will pass it no matter what happens in the crazy House,” Stabenow told the leaders of the National Association of Conservation Districts, who were in town for their summer conference.
“All eyes are on the U.S. House of Representatives to see if they are going to understand what this is all about,” Stabenow told reporters in a telephone news conference an hour later.
House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., made the same points in radio interviews, but appeared less optimistic about finishing the bill.
“I do not see a clear path to resolution here,” Peterson told AgriTalk.
Stabenow cited a statement by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., on the House floor Thursday evening as evidence that the House leadership will not send the farm-program-only to the Senate.
Asked by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., how the House would proceed on the farm bill, Cantor said he and other members of the leadership “are in discussions about how to expedite an agreement on the farm bill.”
“Certainly it is our intention to act with dispatch to bring to the floor, dealing with the SNAP program, that portion of what was traditionally the farm bill,” Cantor said. “We intend to bring that vehicle to the floor at some point in the near future.”
Stabenow told the conservation leaders she was giving them “marching orders” to tell House leadership it needs to send the farm-program-only bill to the Senate now so that conference can begin because time is running short before the current farm bill expires on September 30.
She also said that if the House does not allow conference to start before the August break, then “when members are home in August, at every single town meeting a hand needs to go up asking” the member to support a comprehensive bipartisan bill with strong conservation and conservation compliance.”
“I hope there is an outcry if we haven’t been able to even get to conference by August,” Stabenow added.
“All farmers organizations, everyone who cares about the farm bill, needs to work with us to show that there is strength not only in rural America, but in the agricultural economy across the country.”
She also noted that the lack of a farm bill had played a role in Senate races last year. Although Stabenow did not name names, political analysts have said House Republican intransigence on the farm bill was a key issue in the elections of Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana.
Stabenow also noted that commodity and conservations groups had reached an “historic” agreement on conservation compliance that is included in the Senate bill.
Stabenow said she had spoken with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., but that he had been unable to tell her exactly what would happen next because the strategy comes from the House leadership.
She congratulated Lucas and House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., for putting together a bipartisan bill, but she added, “It is stunning to me what has happened in the House.”
Instead of “doing what’s always done” — forming a consensus blocking amendments that would break the agreement, the House leadership “did not listen to the House Agriculture leaders. They put on amendments that took votes away, that began to collapse the whole thing.”
In her news conference, Stabenow also said that the House provisions to repeal the 1938 and 1949 laws and make the 2013 commodity title permanent law is “a very serious issue.” Among agriculture groups, she said, “this ranks very high, if not the top concern.”
Noting that the bill would make the commodity title permanent but not do the same for conservation and other programs, she said that this provision should concern “anyone who cares about conservation and anything other than the commodity title.”
A farm bill without the nutrition title would not pass the Senate and President Barack Obama would not sign it, she said.
There has been talk that food stamps, officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, would continue without the farm bill, but Stabenow said that passing a farm bill without nutrition policy would weaken the program and leave it vulnerable to fights over funding in the appropriations process.
Stabenow also made the point that a farm bill without a nutrition title would not include the reforms that the Senate has put in its bill. She also asked if House members who do not support the Senate nutrition title “want to continue the possibility” that lottery winners can continue to get food stamps, that college students living at home can get food stamps and that retailers can still give people cash for their benefits “so that they can turn around and buy drugs.”
Stabenow also said she would defend the Senate dairy title that dairy farmers like and that was the same in the House Agriculture Committee-passed bill, but changed on the House floor.
Peterson, who wrote the original dairy title in conjunction with the National Milk Producers Federation, said “I have been trying to be reasonable but given that nobody else is being reasonable,” that he would “demand” that the original program be included in the conference report.
