The Ranking Member and Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee are still holding out hope for a new farm bill this year.
A Slido poll at the beginning of the Agri-Pulse Ag and Food Policy Summit Monday showed more than 80 percent of attendees believed there would not be a farm bill this year. Ranking Member Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) said he hopes that is wrong. “If you talk to the average person in Congress, most members on both sides very much want to get a farm bill done,” said Boozman. “I know how important it is for rural America to give our farmers stability.”
Listen to his comments:
Agri-Pulse Summit Sen. Boozman 13:34
Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) stressed that the only way to get a farm bill is by building coalitions, not by pitting one title against another. “What does not work is playing politics of food assistance and nutrition against everything else in the farm bill,” said Stabenow.
The chairwoman noted that since coming to the Senate in 2001, she has worked on six bills, leading three of them. “Shoot me now!” she exclaimed. “The same fights come up every time and they never work. If we abandon the coalition, we don’t get a farm bill.”
Listen to her comments:
Agri-Pulse Summit Sen. Stabenow 24:00