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Nutrition bill vote expected Thursday

The House is expected to vote Thursday on a nutrition bill.  Still uncertain is whether Republican leadership has enough votes to pass the legislation, which calls for a 40 billion dollar cut to the food stamp program over the next 10 years.

Regardless of how that vote turns out, it looks like the House will move to a farm bill conference committee with the Senate. 

“We have heard that the leadership will appoint conferees regardless of what happens with this bill—whether it is passed or it is defeated,” says Colin Woodall, vice president of government affairs with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. “We are encouraging the leadership to go ahead and appoint those conferees because we need to get a conference going in order to make sure we get a (farm) bill this year.”

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a member of the Senate Ag Committee, is confident the House will proceed to conference on the farm bill.

“And the reason I’m confident is that you have chairwoman Stabenow and Leader Reid saying that there’s not going to be any extension,” Grassley says. “That puts a lot of pressure on, but that pressure is valuable from this standpoint—that farmers need certainty and a five-year farm bill gives some of that certainty.”

For his part, Woodall anticipates a new farm bill will be in place by the end of this year.