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Reaction to word of House farm bill split

Word that House leaders could likely introduce a stand-alone farm bill without nutrition programs included has stirred reactions both for and against.

While Indiana Congressman Marlin Stutzman, who proposed the idea along with conservative group Heritage Action CEO Michael Needham over a year ago is pleased with the direction the House is going, Needham disagrees. Needham says the latest House move is a ploy to get the bill to a conference committee with the Senate. In a statement, Needham said real reform of subsidies and government intervention would not occur and would continue harming “consumers and taxpayers alike.”

Ranking House Ag Committee Chairman Colin Peterson called the proposed split a “crazy strategy”, according to the Hill dot com and predicts a farm policy-only bill would die in conference with the Senate. The Hill says a House-Senate conference would send back “just 5-Million dollars in food stamp cuts” and that would not garner enough House Republican support for it to pass.

Last week, more than 500 agriculture and related industry groups urged Speaker John Boehner not to split the farm bill and to pass a full five year farm bill.

While the House Rules Committee is expected to deal with the proposal, a spokesman for Majority Leader Eric Cantor tells the CQ Roll Call “there has been no decision made to schedule a vote on the farm bill, in any form.”