House Ag Chair G.T. Thompson鈥檚 push to move a farm bill next month, if successful, could help jump-start long-stalled Senate committee action. But there are still doubts. Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley is still pessimistic about chances for a new farm bill this year.
But if House Ag Chair Thompson gets bipartisan agreement in his panel on a way to fund farm safety net improvements, Grassley says that could break the logjam in Senate Ag. Grassley says, 鈥淵eah, if it was something that, I suppose in this case, it鈥檇 be something that Republicans could agree to with the funding, and I assume if Thompson came up with something that House Republicans agreed to, it鈥檇 probably look pretty good to us.鈥
But Grassley still predicts Congress won鈥檛 pass a new farm bill until next year, though he hopes otherwise. Grassley says, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 going on in the House is very unpredictable, so I wouldn鈥檛 want to make a speculation on what the House can do. But I would hope the House would pass a farm bill.鈥
But Secretary Tom Vilsack told top GOP Senate Ag appropriator John Hoeven (R-ND) that doesn鈥檛 guarantee agreement on his plan to boost support for higher crop insurance levels. Vilsack says, 鈥淭here鈥檚 a conflicting set of messages coming out of this Capitol on crop insurance. I think we need, perhaps, some consistency in the approach here would be helpful.鈥 Hoeven: 鈥淲ell, we prefer our approach.鈥 Vilsack 鈥淚鈥檓 sure you do, but there are 166 members of the House Republican caucus that feel that crop insurance should be cut.鈥
Story courtesy of NAFB News Service and Matt Kaye/Berns Bureau Washington
