Finish Line In Sight For Farm Bill

Senate Ag Committee Chair, Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) told Politico that top farm bill negotiators are “just tying up loose ends” and “feeling very good about things” going into a full meeting of the House-Senate conference later this week.

Except for one public meeting, most of the negotiations have been carried out behind closed doors by Stabenow and House Ag Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) together with their ranking members, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN).

Several sources have confirmed that conferees are tentatively set to meet Thursday to handle a few final amendment votes before conferees sign the report.

Beyond fighting over the final, contentious issues, there could be increased pressure on conferees to act swiftly on the bill — projected to reduce the deficit by about $20 billion — as members eye potential offsets for a pending three-month jobless benefits extension.

The House GOP leadership is prepared to make floor time for the farm bill next week, but after two years of struggle, there’s caution in working through the last details and scoring by the Congressional Budget Office.

One thing working in favor of a final bill passing before the Martin Luther King holiday is political survival of some House Republicans. According to Roll Call, there seems to be an understanding in political circles that if the conference report gets held up, rural voters will see it as the fault of the Republicans in general and the House Republicans in particular.