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House Ag Committee prepares for farm bill markup

The House Ag Committee’s version of the new farm bill is getting mixed feedback ahead of next week’s markup and the chairman says he’s ready for a more robust discussion.

Glenn “GT” Thompson tells Brownfield he’s taken a “do no harm approach” when figuring out how to pay for necessary improvements to the farm bill.

“The pay-fors I found are necessary. We’re going to need somewhere north of $60 billion to pay for the priorities that are bipartisan I put into this bill. Unfortunately, the Senate bill only has $5 billion and none of it within the jurisdiction of agriculture.”

Some Democrats on the House Ag Committee are concerned about adding the Inflation Reduction Act funding to the baseline of the farm bill and proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Thompson says “the ranking member and Democrats have a difficult decision to make next week. Do you go with national politics or go with serving your farmers and the folks at home who produce, process and consume ag products?”

Thompson says he’s expecting there to be some amendments on the pay-fors from lawmakers in the markup.

“I hope whoever puts this forward would have the insight to know if they cut the pay-for, we cut out the good, bipartisan policy the pay-fors fund.”

Thompson says the path forward for the new farm bill will be clearer after the final vote on the committee markup. He says passing a new farm bill is urgent, but there’s a busy floor schedule beyond Memorial Day.

A public draft of the House Ag Committee’s entire farm bill is expected to be released to the public on Friday morning.

The House Agriculture Committee will mark up the new farm bill next Thursday, May 23 starting at 11 a.m. central time. Click here for a link to the hearing.

Hear Brownfield’s interview with Thompson.