The Farm Bill is currently running on another extension of the 2018 Farm Bill, but getting a new one finished is a top priority for ag lawmakers.
The former House Ag Committee Chair, Mike Conway, authored the legislation, and he says it will all come don to money and finding ways to negotiate over SNAP benefits.
“We’re spending way too much money every single day, and so I would anticipate that it’s going to be difficult for the Budget Committees to agree to new money for the non-stat portions of the farm bill, which means if they want to change something in one title, they’ve got to move money out of a different title. And that means taking money away from people who have been getting it and giving it to the folks who may need it more. Those kinds of Solomon-like decisions are going to have to get made, but if they can get snapped off the table through reconciliation, then I think they’ve got a great chance of getting a farm bill done. Not by this September, but maybe this calendar year can get that done.”
The 2018 Farm Bill is now the third-largest Farm Bill in history. The 1938 Farm Bill ran for ten years, and the 1956 legislation went for nine.
