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Thompson: the farm bill process gets complicated

The chairman of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee says the farm bill markup has hit a detour.

“What has always been a complicated process has become a little more complicated.”

Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson tells Brownfield the farm bill needs a week of dedicated floor time for markup, but the House still needs to select a speaker and Congress needs to reach an agreement on government funding. 

“Unfortunately, there were 4 appropriation bills we would have gotten done. Those spending bills are critically important to get out of the way here. It would be nice to clear all of those before we do the farm bill. I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary, but it would be preferred.”

Thompson says he’d like to have an extension of the current farm bill and the new farm bill marked up by the end of December.

“Once I see who the new speaker is I’ll be having those conversations immediately, looking for a guarantee on a week,” says Thompson. “One of the things we’re waiting on right now is additional scoring from the Congressional Budget Office, specifically on title one of the farm bill.”

Thompson says he is optimistic bipartisanship could happen to get a new farm bill across the finish line. Hear the full interview.