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Chairman Thompson, Sec. Vilsack weigh in on continued farm bill uncertainty

Pressure is mounting to get a farm bill done yet this year. 

“We’re going to give the Senate a great bill to be able to work with,” House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson said Wednesday at the 2024 Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa.

Thompson tells Brownfield he’d like to see a House vote before the U.S. Presidential Election. “Now I’m working on closing the gap,” he said. “The funding issue and working with the Congressional Budget Office. They’ve been very helpful. And quite frankly working with the individual members to make sure we have a strong, robust vote.”

But Thompson says another extension is likely due to inactivity in the Senate. “I think that’s creating difficulty for Senator (Debbie) Stabenow to be able to have confidence she will be able to get 60 votes,” Thompson said. “They don’t have a bill at this point.”

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says he knows Chairman Thompson wants a farm bill wrapped up before the election. “If it doesn’t get done before the end of the year or if there’s not an extension before the end of the year, then there’s some ramifications that are pretty dire.”

But he tells Brownfield changes have to be practical. “You have to take a look at what actual resources are indeed available for any new programs or expansions of existing programs and try to fit whatever you’re proposing within the real cost,” Vilsack said. “Not a cost that’s made up or not a cost that you use budget gimmicks to try to overshadow.”

Vilsack says he doesn’t think it would take much to get it done. “The areas of differences are just a handful. They are big and they are significant, but they are not impossible to bridge.”

Brownfield’s Meghan Grebner co-authored this story.

AUDIO: Farm Progress Show interview with House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson and Iowa Republican Randy Feenstra

AUDIO: Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack at the Farm Progress Show