The House Farm Bill will enter committee next week, making it the first major action taken on the new legislation.
However, the American Farm Bureau says that a lot is riding on that markup hearing.
The hearing could be a “make or break” situation.
Both parties on the committee will need to back the bill, ensuring the Speaker can bring it to the House floor. The Nutrition Title will be the biggest hurdle, making up 80% of the Farm Bill, which is already set to be the most expensive in history.
The Farm Bureau urges lawmakers to vote for farmers and ranchers in their district, and allow them to get some much-needed certainty.
House Ag Committee Chair GT Thompson says that despite roadblocks along the way, he is glad to see progress being made.
“Every Farm Bill that’s ever occurred has had its own challenges, its own pathways. Some have been vetoed, others have been delayed by over a year, and ours was no different. In fact, our circumstances, I would say were pretty unique. You know, we had a, you know, the firing of a Speaker of the House which unfortunately cost us significant time and a delay in organizing the committee initially. I mean there’s just a number of things that, you know, just rather unique to this process, but at the same time, we have done our due diligence in a bipartisan way of doing what we needed to do when we did it in terms of getting that input, bringing those voices to American agriculture to the table. And, I’m really happy with— well, I’m thrilled actually with the end result, this Chairman’s mark— by the way that text will be released by the end of this week to the general public, and I think folks are going to be very excited to see what this means for, you know, for those who produce, those who process, and those who consume,” Rep Thompson explains.
The markup hearing is on Thursday.
