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House Speaker is blocking Discharge Petition

Earlier this month Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley initiated a “Discharge Petition”, a procedural maneuver which circumvents House leadership and brings a bill to the floor with 218 signatures. The problem is the bill must be reported to the floor before the discharge petition can be launched and to date, Speaker Boehner has blocked the reporting of the Farm Bill. Representative Braley issued a statement on Wednesday:

“Games are being played in Washington, as Speaker Boehner is using all the moves in the procedural playbook to keep the Farm Bill off the House Floor. He has decided to personally overrule the bipartisan majority of the House Agriculture Committee, by keeping the bill bottled up. He’s also personally overruling a bipartisan and geographically diverse coalition that I’m helping lead, 50 different Farm Groups, and what I believe to be a bipartisan majority of the House. If he put this bill on the Floor, it would pass, and we’d be one step closer to bringing stability and relief to American farmers and consumers.

“That’s why I’ve worked across party lines to try to force a vote through a Discharge Petition, but Speaker Boehner is even playing games with that. We began this process in July, yet he has bottled the bill up in Committee, in an effort to prevent the petition from being filed with the Clerk. It’s been 64 days since a strong, bipartisan majority of the House Agriculture Committee voted to report the bill; yet the bill has not been reported. House Rules require that the bill be reported “promptly.” He is countering our Discharge Petition by refusing to allow the bill to be reported from Committee.

“These games are unprecedented. Over the last five Farm Bills, dating back to 1985, the longest delay between a vote to report, and the actual reporting, was 20 days. Over these five Farm Bills, between 2008 and 1985, this delay was 4 days, 6 days, 9 days, 20 days, and 2 days. Now, Speaker Boehner is preventing the reporting of the bill, over the objection of 35 Agriculture Committee Members who voted to report, and it’s been 64 days. Speaker Boehner needs to end the games, and allow the Congress to do its job by voting on the bill.”