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Will the farm bill get done?

The former chairman of the House Agriculture Committee says it’s not looking good for lawmakers to complete a new farm bill in 2024.

Collin Peterson with the Peterson Group tells Brownfield lawmakers still can’t agree how to pay for a reference price increase, “The way to resolve it is to come up with the $20-$25 billion, which nobody has been able to figure out how to do.”

Peterson says Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow is trying to get the farm bill on track and she’s given Republican lawmakers an ultimatum to get negotiations started, “As I understand, what she’s proposed, farmers would have to make a choice between crop insurance or Title 1 and that’s not going to fly, there’ll be no Republican support for that.”

If lawmakers really want to work out their differences, Peterson says one of the best ways would be to mark up the proposed farm bill, “So until somebody actually puts some language on the table, I don’t see how this moves ahead.”

Peterson says it’s a very complicated issue and at this point and no one seems to want to negotiate.