Among the issues that have plagued negotiations for a new farm bill for more than a year have been disagreements around spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), raising commodity reference prices, and USDA’s access to the Commodity Credit Corporation.
In a narrowly divided Congress, those largely partisan concerns meant policy discussions made little headway or would have been voted down if they were put up. That disfunction was evident with the back-and-forth over continuing resolutions before Christmas to fund the government, where lawmakers offered extending the farm bill for one year again with no new policy in sight.
The next Congress will return to a Republican majority, but there is no guarantee that will help move things along.
The ag leadership picture
When new farm bill negotiations do progress, three of the four Congressional agricultural committee leaders will be new to their posts. That fresh perspective could be valuable.
John Boozman of Arkansas will lead the Senate’s work on agriculture, taking over for Debbie Stabenow from Michigan after the Senate flipped to a Republican majority in the November election. He has served as the highest Republican on the committee for the last four years and helped negotiate and author the 2018 Farm Bill, which included further support for producer safety net programs and cost-saving measures for SNAP administration.
In addition to Boozman, the Senate will have a new top Democrat on agriculture topics, Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, due to Stabenow’s retirement. While she is expected to carry on many of Stabenow’s priorities, Klobuchar is also known as a bipartisan negotiator and brings some optimism to farm bill negotiations. She is one of the co-sponsors of the Senate’s version of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act.
In the House of Representatives, GT Thompson from Pennsylvania will be the one stalwart “corner” of agriculture as he remains chairman of the agriculture committee. Thompson has been a strong supporter of dairy farmers over the last four years, including championing the Whole Milk for Heathy Kids Act.
The ranking member on the House committee — the top Democrat — will be Angie Craig of Minnesota. She replaces Georgia’s David Scott, who previously chaired the committee and also sought the position alongside Jim Costa of California. However, Scott dropped out of the running after Craig earned the endorsement of the House Democratic Steering Committee. She then won the vote over Costa, who has been a member of the agriculture committee since he joined House in 2005 and worked on three farm bills. Craig is in her third term in Congress and represents the district just south of the Twin Cities. She has said Democrats need to listen to and have more of a presence in rural America.
