Won’t pass – spending cuts and limited floor time threatens its passage

House Republican leaders have been struggling to get the votes to move a partisan fiscal 2024 funding bill for USDA and FDA ahead of the long summer recess, raising fresh doubts about how soon lawmakers can start working on the farm bill this fall.

More than 140 amendments were filed for consideration on the FY24 Agriculture spending bill last week in anticipation of floor debate on the measure this week.

Hard-line GOP conservatives have been demanding deeper cuts in spending than the House Appropriations Committee's FY24 measures already contain, and as of this weekend the House Rules Committee had not scheduled a meeting to consider a rule for the Agriculture bill that will determine which of the proposed amendments get votes.

Some 21 members of the House Freedom Caucus signed a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., earlier this month, insisting that overall spending for FY24 be cut to the FY22 level of $1.47 trillion, and without the use of funding rescissions to exceed that limit. According to a report in Roll Call, senior House GOP members met Wednesday with some of the Freedom Caucus to discuss making deeper cuts in the legislation.

The FY24 Agriculture bill, which already has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate, would provide a total of $25.3 billion for USDA, FDA and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a reduction of 2% from the amount they got for FY23, and even that funding level depends on a mix of about $8 billion in cuts to pandemic assistance and Inflation Reduction Act allocations to USDA.

The slow process of moving appropriations bills with the end of the fiscal year looming Sept. 30 threatens to push action on a new farm bill deeper into the fall.

The House is scheduled to be in recess after this week until Sept. 12 and in session for only three weeks before October.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., told reporters the lack of legislative days ahead “may impact when leadership is able to give me a week to take our bill. I’m hoping to mark our bill up soon after we come back in September, and then that next step would be the House floor, and obviously there’s a lot of competition for time.”

If GOP leaders can get an agreement to take up the Agriculture spending bill this week, Thompson will have to deal with amendments to that measure that could affect farm bill programs.

The amendments include proposals to eliminate international food aid and cut other programs and agencies back to FY19 spending levels.

Another amendment, proposed by Freedom Caucus member Byron Donalds, R-Fla., would expand SNAP work requirements to people as young as 16 and as old as 64. That goes too far for Thompson, who called the proposal “completely inappropriate.” He argues that the maximum age of 54 should be left alone after it was raised in the debt ceiling agreement.

Other proposed amendments would stop USDA from operating commodity checkoff programs, block implementation of the USDA Equity Commission’s interim report, and prohibit funding for climate or green energy initiative.