The full Senate began debate on the Farm Bill earlier this week. Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly says it is moving along well. “It has momentum,” he says. “We had a strong vote coming out of the committee itself so I’m looking for a five-year farm bill.”
Yesterday the Senate voted on the amount of cuts to the nutrition programs. “There were some amendments to take cuts out of crop insurance instead,” he says. “You know what on the nutrition cuts – we’re working really hard make sure those cuts are ones that are sensible, that won’t eliminate any nutrition for our children and others. But at the same time, we have to make sure we have crop insurance.”
Donnelly tells Brownfield he’s thinks this Farm Bill will be good for Indiana’s farmers. “We were able to work through what we call Farm Flex, which provides planting flexibility for all of our farmers,” he says. “I kind of held the line on that and said, ‘look we have to make sure this program continues’ so we were able to keep that in place.”
He thinks a vote on the Farm Bill is not too far away. “I’d like to tell you today – but you never know,” he says. “We’re ready to go. We’re ready to move forward and I’m hoping to have a vote here really soon.”
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