Farmers and ranchers have been waiting for more than a year for a brand new Farm Bill.
Kansas Senator Jerry Moran is ready to hit the ground running but says there could be challenges down the road.
“Well, the House Ag Committee has passed a Farm Bill. It hasn’t been addressed on the House floor. The Senate Committee has not passed a Farm Bill, last year it did not, and so there’s nothing that’s happened on the Senate floor. So the baseline, I think, will be this House Ag Committee bill. That’s where we’ll start, but the challenge we face, I think, if the Senate can get its act together and get a farm bill completed, but the challenge we face is what we saw a week or so ago in the House of Representatives. And what we’re seeing somewhat today in regard to the election of a Speaker, the ability to get all Republicans or Republicans and Democrats together in the House will remain a challenge. So it’s going to take extra effort for us to come up with a farm bill that can pass the House of Representatives.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson is already ready to get back to work. He is hoping to have a reconciliation package through Congress by the end of April, which allows lawmakers to pass policies aligned with their party and suspend the 60-vote threshold to pass a law. However, that move could put snap benefits back into the spotlight. Lawmakers have been fighting over SNAP for some time, with it largely being a partisan issue. Roll Call reports President-elect Trump is asking for unity, and has already requested an extension of his 2017 tax cut package.
