By Ryan Hanrahan
Politico’s Grace Yarrow reported that “House Republicans are looking to bring their farm bill for a floor vote the last week of April, according to four people close to the talks who were granted anonymity to discuss them.”
“The timing is still fluid and could be bumped to after the chamber’s one-week recess at the beginning of May as lawmakers continue high-stakes negotiations over immigration enforcement funding as well as a potential second reconciliation package,” Yarrow reported. “Republicans have been privately whipping votes since the House Agriculture Committee advanced the farm bill in a 34-17 vote last month, putting pressure on GOP colleagues to help deliver what committee Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) has called a ‘morale boost’ for rural America ahead of the midterms.”
“House GOP leadership senior staff have privately warned that the package could be ‘in big trouble’ on the floor due to intra-party divides over controversial provisions on pesticide labeling and state-level livestock laws,” Yarrow reported. “Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), the Agriculture Committee’s top Democrat, has slammed what she calls ‘poison pills’ in the Republican-led bill.”
Agri-Pulse’s Lydia Johnson reported that “Thompson said the Proposition 12 and pesticide provisions have been sticking points in the House, though he noted the issues are ‘more of an issue on the Senate side.’ He added that ‘Senator Boozman will do what he needs to do to get 60 votes in the Senate.'”
“Thompson said both Republican and some Democrat members of the committee are helping to garner support in the lower chamber, though he didn’t provide an estimate of how many Democrats would back the bill,” Johnson reported. “‘I’m very optimistic going into the markup of the farm bill on the House floor,’ Thompson said.”
Source : illinois.edu