Congressional Disagreements Push Back Farm Bill Productivity
Hill 23 (Meredith Lee Hill, Meredith Lee is a food and agriculture policy reporter for POLITICO. She previously spent six years at NewsHour covering the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, the Trump and Biden administrations, Congress and economic policy. Her work included supply chain and food insecurity issues, the Trump and Biden Covid-19 responses in rural communities and efforts to overhaul immigration for migrant agriculture workers. Biden invites lawmakers to White House to discuss farm bill amid looming debt limit crisis. Politico. May 10, 2023. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/10/biden-farm-bill-debt-limits-00096190#:~:text=President%20Joe%20Biden%20is%20wading,piece%20of%20legislation%20off%20track. Accessed 7/12/2023)//EW
President Joe Biden is wading into the high-stakes negotiations over the farm bill, amid growing concerns the debt limit stand-off could knock that must-pass piece of legislation off track. Biden has invited a small, bipartisan group of lawmakers to the White House Thursday to discuss the upcoming farm bill reauthorization, according to four people familiar with the plans who were granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. Congress is aiming to write and pass what is expected to be a $1 trillion-plus bill, which will authorize U.S. food and agriculture spending for the next decade, by this fall. But even senior Senate Republicans are increasingly wary that the mounting debt crisis could derail the traditionally bipartisan farm bill. The group of invitees include House Agriculture Committee Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) and John Boozman (Ark.), the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senate Agriculture Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who is a member of Democratic leadership, and Rep. David Scott (Ga.), the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is also expected to attend, according to the people. Stabenow confirmed she was planning to attend the meeting with Biden, which she described as a “general overview” of the farm bill process. “The President’s very interested in getting a bipartisan farm bill and just wants to have an opportunity to touch base,” Stabenow said. The Thursday afternoon meeting, which the president is expected to attend, could be somewhat tense given Democrats’ strong objections to the House GOP’s push to restrict federal food aid and slash other spending as part of their proposal to raise the debt limit. Specifically, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s plan would expand work requirements for beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the country’s leading anti-hunger program, which is part of the farm bill. A spokesperson for Thompson, the only invitee who has voted for the House GOP debt limit bill, said he plans to attend the White House meeting