Inside D.C.

How could the 2018 Farm Bill be worse?

Unless there’s a complete and totally unexpected meltdown in the Senate, the 2014 Farm Bill should be on its way to the President’s desk for his signature by this time next week. Never in my experience was iconic legislation like the quintennial omnibus Farm Bill so plagued by rank politicking and an almost tangible indifference for the bill and its beneficiaries.

I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of program details or what finally survived the legislative mayhem that got us to this point. All the bill’s details can be found at either agriculture committee website (www.agriculture.senate.gov or www.agriculture.house.gov). I’m going to reflect and bloviate on the process.

I’ve referred to the Farm Bill as the 2012-13-14 Farm Bill. Slated for reauthorization back in 2012 – for a 2013 effective date – the bill moved through the committee process on both sides of the Hill handily. Typical of most farm legislation, differences in policy and program had more to do with size of operations and regional differences than partisan politics. The Senate Agriculture Committee – thanks to the partnership of Chair Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) and then ranking member Sen. Pat Roberts (R, KS), a former chair of the House ag panel – cranked out a progressive bill with strong bipartisan support. Stabenow shepherded it through floor debate deftly, achieving another strong bipartisan vote to approve.

House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK), and former panel chair now ranking member Rep. Collin Peterson (D, MN), rammed their bill through a conventionally rancorous — and entertaining — committee markup and had it ready for the floor in mid-2012 right on schedule. House leadership in the persons of House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R, VA) – neither any fan of Farm Bills – mysteriously decided the “votes weren’t there” to pass it, and refused to bring it to the floor. The plaintiff cries of Lucas and Peterson, begging Cantor particularly to get out of the way and let the votes fall where they may, went unheard. Missed was the window for scheduled reauthorization, the 112th Congress ended, and it was clear something “bigger” in Cantor’s mind was on the table.

Come 2013 and the new 113th Congress, Stabenow – this time with a new ranking member in the person of former committee chair Sen. Thad Cochran (R, MS) – reworked her magic from the previous year. Even with tinkering to the previous bill’s commodity title based on aforementioned regional and crop differences, Stabenow got the bill through committee – again – and through Senate floor debate – again – with the same solid bipartisan support. Lucas and Peterson redid their thing, pushing the bill out of committee. It then became a little more obvious Cantor’s fixation was the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – federal food stamps and how to cut the program for only a few of which make sense.

The bill finally went to the House floor carrying something north of $13 billion in SNAP cuts and more than a couple of hundred amendments, an amendment by ag committee member Rep. Jim McGovern (D, MA) to restore the SNAP cuts fails, and Lucas heaves a visible sigh of relief as he senses final passage is at hand. Then Cantor, for reasons understood only by him, signals Rep. Steve Southerland (R, FL) at the 11th hour to offer as the last amendment a requirement all food stamp recipients have jobs or be training for jobs. Greed will get you every time, as Republicans and Democrats ready to vote “aye” on the final bill abandoned the GOP and ran for the Hills, bringing down for the first time a committee-approved Farm Bill.

We went through the silliness of formal House action to strip out the nutrition title, rework it to cut $40 billion out of the program over the next decade, pass the food stamp cuts as a stand-alone bill, and bring up the crippled Farm Bill separately. The previously approved food stamp bill is then rolled back into the Farm Bill, the legislative equivalent of castrating bulls, only to turn around and inject them with growth hormones. It’s apparent all of this falderal was a convoluted scheme to cut the food stamp program more deeply, while holding farmers, ranchers and the income safety net and operating certainty they rely upon hostage, apparently to send a message to the White House, mollify ultraconservative budget hawks and/or make some political statement.

We finally got to conference and this is where Lucas and Stabenow get my vote for outstanding congressional committee chairs. They hammered out a somewhat wobbly marriage of the House and Senate Farm bills. Stabenow gets the award for getting two bills through committee and two bills through floor action, and surviving a Farm Bill conference committee with her optimism intact. Lucas gets the award for tenacity, doggedness and surviving not only the regional and chamber battles of the conference committee, but the incredible indifference of his own party’s leaders.

 

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