The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Nutrition is set to consider its version of the farm bill Wednesday, June 13.
American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Congressional Relations Director Andrew Walmsley said the announcement appears to be a positive step forward.
“This whole process in the Senate has moved forward as we expected, as we hoped, in a bipartisan fashion,” Walmsley told AFBF’s Newsline.
The text of the bill was released Friday, and Walmsley said the Senate could pass the bill by the end of this month.
“Leader McConnell has already mentioned that they plan to move the farm bill before July 4 recess in the Senate,” he said. “So, stars appear to be aligning that we could be moving through the Senate pretty quickly when it comes to farm bill.”
He noted Senate action could prompt the House to move forward with its version of the bill and bring the two together for conference and final passage.
The Republican conference has recently met on immigration.
“That was one of the demands made when we saw the setback back in May with the House farm bill that a certain segment of the caucus would like to see a vote on immigration which provides an opportunity to hopefully have farm and ag labor involved in that,” Walmsley said. “We support moving that process forward to get a vote, get an agreement there, so we can go ahead and move the House farm bill forward. And, with the movement in the Senate, get the two bills together in conference and back through both chambers before the end of the year.”