Braley, Loebsack introduce Senate version of farm bill

WASHINGTON - The next step for the troubled federal farm bill in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is not a hopeful one - given that it started in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

A 2013 farm bill seemed to be on a sure path to passage until last week's unexpected, unprecedented 234-195 House vote to defeat its version of the legislation. The vote surprised farm lobby observers and came despite Speaker John Boehner's announced support before the vote - as well as the fact that the House had never before voted against a farm bill. Most Republicans objected to spending they considered too generous; most Democrats objected to $20 billion in food stamp cuts they said was too much.

On Wednesday, Reps. Dave Loebsack and Bruce Braley, both D-Iowa, introduced the Senate version of the bill into the House. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nev., had called for just such an action on Monday. The Senate bill passed on a 66-27 bipartisan vote on June 10, and Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who are senior members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, were part of the majority.

“While the Senate legislation is not perfect, Congress must provide our farmers and rural communities some certainty,” Loebsack said. “Partisan bickering will only further delay enactment of a long-term bill.”

Braley called the bill “a necessity for rural America.”

“Farmers and agricultural producers need the Farm Bill so they can have the assurance they need to continue to invest in the future, create jobs, and grow the economy,” Braley said.

Grassley on Wednesday said he endorsed the idea of bringing the Senate bill to the House. But he cited others' predictions that nothing will happen until the weeklong July 4 recess concludes, since tempers are still too high. A member of Congress since 1980, Grassley said he has never seen such a polarized atmosphere around a farm bill.

“I don't recall a farm bill being defeated on the floor of the House in the past, so this is entirely different,” he said.

The partisan differences are setting up the possibility of another short-term extension of the current law, which the House also passed last year. But Reid on Monday vowed that the Senate would not approve another temporary extension, noting that the Senate version lasts five years as most past bills have done.

The current farm bill extension expires at the end of September.

Some Republicans this week began insisting that Democrats agree to the food stamp cuts that partially doomed the bill last week. But Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a longtime champion of nutrition assistance, said Democrats have already agreed to enough.

“It was clearly demonstrated last week that more nutrition cuts are not a formula for gaining the bipartisan support that is essential to enact a new farm bill,” Harkin said. “To be clear - the Republicans do not have to agree to spend more on nutrition assistance. They need to withdraw unreasonable ideas about cutting back on the levels of nutrition assistance that are already in the budget.”

Farm lobbyists in Washington say they are doubtful that the House will consider the Senate farm bill. But Dale Moore, an executive director at the American Farm Bureau, said on a positive note, the two bills are very similar except for the food stamp cuts.

“They don't have substantially different approaches to the safety net, crop insurance or conservation programs,” Moore said. “They're built on the same basic platform. So it's just a matter of how they shoot the gaps on figuring out the differences.”