Senate won’t pass farm bill due to extreme partisan divide over food politics – neither side will back down

The U.S. House Agriculture Committee’s version of the farm bill will not get support from U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing), who chairs the Senate committee responsible for handling the appropriations bill. Stabenow told the Michigan Advance after an event in Lansing Wednesday morning that this farm bill process has been the “most frustrating” of her career. “I’ve actually been involved in six farm bills and led on three of them, and this has been the most frustrating time,” said Stabenow, who chairs the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, and is retiring this term. “Because it’s so much more partisan than usual and particularly around food assistance.” The farm bill is a $1.5 trillion federal legislation package that creates policy and appropriates funding to food, agriculture and conservation programs. The bill expires every five years, and the most recently passed legislation was set to expire in September 2023. The 2018 farm bill received an extension through the end of September 2024, putting pressure on lawmakers to finish a deal before the November election. The framework from GOP senators reflected the GOP-led House panel’s version, which passed with votes from every Republican and four Democrats on the committee. Stabenow said the version is “just not balanced.” “The politics of food has gotten, very, very, very partisan and very, very disheartening to me,” Stabenow said. “Because traditionally, we’ve been able to come together around those issues.” U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), a member of the House Agriculture Committee, told the Advance after a May 31 event in Traverse City that she doesn’t believe that GOP cuts to food assistance will make it into the final bill. “This was the thing that was so hard about last week, is that the farm bill draft in the House had a bunch of bills that I care about and I voted against it. Because they just slashed food assistance — they slashed SNAP, so food stamps, all kinds of agricultural programs for our farmers markets, school lunch programs, you name it,” Slotkin said. “So I couldn’t vote for it. I think that it will not pass muster; those kinds of things will not make it into law — most importantly because we have Debbie Stabenow as the chairwoman of the Senate Ag Committee and she’s absolutely not going to stand for that.”