House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma says lawmakers face a big challenge in crafting a farm bill this year. Lucas and the other principle leaders of the House and Senate Ag Committees had a farm bill draft ready for the super committee that would have saved 23-billion dollars in the federal deficit reduction effort. The question now is, will agriculture be asked to do more.
“Will we be able to hold our savings to that $23 billion number? Will we save less? That’s very unlikely. Potentially will leadership in the house and senate expect and demand great savings? I worry about that. But it it’s the $23 billion number then you’ve got the necessary resources to use crop insurance both on the revenue side and on the production side to I think provide a functioning safety net.”
However – there are plenty of obstacles to writing a bill under regular order this year, including “a whole bunch of new members on the Ag Committee, a whole bunch of new members in the United States House. You’ve got a presidential election process going on right now, a third of the senate standing for reelection, and the entire house. This is a very fluid kind of effort. And it would not be the first time if we had to do some sort of extension or temporary farm bill before we did the permanent farm bill.”
Lucas added, “This will be my fourth farm bill. At least twice before we’ve had to do extensions before we could get the final bill done.”
With all of the Congressional factors at play this election year some type of an extension of the previous farm bill is a very possible outcome.
“I wish I could say that an extension would be the easy way out, but there will probably be certain expectations on savings in an extension proposal, and by the same token if you have an extension can you get a farm bill done in lame duck session? Or if it rolls into the next full term of Congress and the next presidential term, will they demand more savings from us? I just don’t know what to expect.”
Lucas says that’s the challenge in such “uncertain water.” So he says the best the committee can do is try and produce good policy with the talent they have and the available resources.
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Source: NAFB News Service
