News

Grassley hopes Senate farm bill stays the same

The announcement that Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran will replace Kansas Senator Pat Roberts as ranking member on the Senate Ag Committee has fueled speculation that Cochran may try to make the next Senate farm bill friendlier to Southern farmers.

Iowa Senator Charles Grassley says he hasn’t talked to Cochran since the announcement, but wouldn’t be surprised if that is the case.

“There’s a difference between a Southern senator and a Midwestern senator on a lot of farm safety net programs,” Grassley says. “I assume that he (Cochran) would get some pressure to change things along the lines of what wheat, cotton and peanuts want.”

For his part, Grassley doesn’t see a need to make big changes to the farm bill passed by the Senate in 2012.

“The majority of the committee and the majority of the Senate was very strongly in support of what passed the Senate—and I would hope that it would stay the same.”

But Grassley says what happens over the next couple months in the debate on federal spending could have a major impact on the next farm bill.