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Farm bill discussion moves to lame duck session

A Democratic member of the U.S. House Ag Committee says she’s disappointed farm bill negotiations are being pushed to the lame duck session of Congress.

Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13th) tells Brownfield…

“I know that was a bipartisan agreement to punt this until after the election.”  She says, “The farmers in my district, the working families in my district, deserve more leadership, I think, in that we need to get a farm bill done, a bipartisan farm bill.”

Budzinski voted against the bill that passed out of committee.  She says the lack of certainty for farmers is frustrating but says the House version of the bill plays favorites.

“Corn and soybean farmers in the seven counties that are in my district rarely receive ARC or PLC payments.” She says, “Soybeans, in particular, in my district, have never once received a PLC payment, so they can point to $43 billion, but Illinois is not one of those favorites.”

She says the House plan also cuts millions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

“One of the things we’re fighting is to make sure that the House Republicans don’t eliminate that Market Basket adjustment.”  She says, “That won’t account for the rising cost of food and be an adjustment for those families.”

However, Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, of Pennsylvania, tells Brownfield…

“It funds the SNAP program at $229 billion higher than the 2018 farm bill.”  He says, “We just reaffirmed that, as past practice, any kind of future adjustments USDA certainly has the authority to do that, but they have to stay within the lines of what the law is.”

AUDIO: Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson

Budzinski questions the viability of the House version of the bill.

“If their bill was so good, why didn’t it come for a vote on the House floor?” she says.

Congress will be forced to deal with the legislation in its lame duck session. However, Congresswoman Budzinski says getting a federal budget passed to fund the government past December 20^th will likely be top priority.  The Senate has not brought forward a bill.

The current farm bill extension expires today. (Monday)

AUDIO: Rep. Nikki Budzinski