By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter
With less than 80 days left before the current farm bill expires, Congress is moving quickly on new legislation.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a motion to move forward to the farm bill conference committee.
“We move one step closer to delivering a strong, new farm bill to the president’s desk on time as he has called on Congress to do,” Congressman Mike Conaway of Texas, chair of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, said. “America’s farmers and ranchers and rural America are struggling right now and they deserve the certainty of a strong farm bill to see them through to better times.”
The House also passed a motion to instruct conferees on the committee to insist on 10-year permanent funding for an animal vaccine program, which is included in the House-passed farm legislation but not the Senate.
Following the vote, House Speaker Paul Ryan named the House conferees who will work with the Senate’s conferees to resolve the differences between the House and Senate passed bills.
“The House has pulled together a solid team of conferees from across the country who are committed to working with our Senate colleagues to reach a final product that helps millions of low-income Americans climb the economic ladder while standing by the hard-working farm and ranch families who put food on our tables and clothes on our backs,” Conaway said.
Five Texans from the House will serve on the farm bill conference committee.
From the House Committee on Agriculture, Conaway and Congressmen Jodey Arrington and Filemon Vela were selected.
“I know firsthand how important a farm bill is to our nation’s economy and national security,” Arrington said. “My goal on this conference committee is to ensure a viable and responsible safety net for all commodities, invest in critical infrastructure to sustain rural communities, provide necessary tools to defend against trade inequities and make long-overdue reforms to the food stamp program to encourage able-bodied adults to work.”
Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, ranking member of the Science, Space and Technology Committee, and Congressman Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, were also selected.
The Senate is expected to vote to proceed to the conference committee sometime next week.
“We are pleased to see the House move ahead on the farm bill,” Congressman Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, and Committee Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow said in a joint statement. “In order to be successful in passing a final bill, the conference committee must put politics aside and focus on the needs of our farmers, families and rural communities. We are eager to go to conference, so we can move quickly to provide certainty for American farmers and families. Rural America is counting on us to get this right.”
The current farm bill expires Sept. 30.
The Senate’s Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 text and additional resources are available here.