Farm bill discussions halt, but work still being done

There would be no farm bill discussions in Washington this week as 100 or so Kansas farmers took to Capitol Hill.

Yet despite a current partisan impasse over the bill’s nutrition program, Dale Moore, American Farm Bureau Federation’s executive director of public policy, assured the group that work is being done to craft the legislation, comparing it to late-night binge watching of the Olympics.

“How many of you have stayed up until 2 in the morning to watch curling or something like that?” Moore asked the group. “That is kind of what is going on.”

Moore, a southwest Kansas native, updated Kansas Farm Bureau’s LEADS visitors March 19 about the farm bill Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program controversy, which has put talks on hold. Two weeks ago, it looked like “they were just about to pull the covers off’” the draft bill, Moore said. “It looked like Chairman (Michael) Conaway was just about to say, ‘Here is what I’m putting on the table as a starting point.’”

However, when Conaway, R-TX, the House Ag Committee chairman, shared language of the nutrition title, Democratic members on the committee wrote a letter to committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-MN, urging him to stop negotiating with Conaway trying sorting out issues regarding the title.

“The House can do whatever they are going to do, but the bottom line is the Senate is going to be pretty much in one where we are on Title 4,” he said, adding Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-KS, has made public statements on the program.

“They might come up with some ways to make changes and ways to make tune-ups in that particular title. But if you really want to start a train wreck in trying to get a farm bill done, blow up Title 4. You won’t get the votes you need in the House from Democrats and there are still about 40 individuals in the Freedom Caucus in the House who don’t think Chairman Conaway has gone far enough based on what they have seen.”

What we know

Moore said most of the work on Title 1 is complete.

“I can’t tell you what it says because no one has seen it,” Moore said. “But Chairman Conaway has it in his pocket.

“We know those titles have been worked very diligently, and we are anxious to see where those changes occur.”

The draft was crafted after more than 100 farm bill listening sessions.

“They have what they need to get started,” he said. “What we are waiting on is the formal process.”

Moore said both Roberts and Conaway have “made it clear they are both waiting for their respective leaders to say, Pat—here is your window on the Senate floor.…Same thing on the House side.”

On ARC: Moore said there should be a fix to the Agriculture Risk Coverage, or ARC.

“We haven’t seen the language but we are told it is in there,” Moore said.

On cotton: “We have a pretty good idea what seed cotton revisions are going to look like because those were part of a budget package a few weeks ago,” Moore said. The new provision allows cottonseed to be an eligible commodity, effective for the 2018 crop year.

Dairy: There is a revised Margin Protection Program.

Conservation: Work includes keeping the program capped at 24 million acres or possibly increasing it to 30 million acres and putting a cap on Conservation Reserve Program rental rates.

Amy Bickel can be reached at [email protected] or 620-860-9433.