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Boehner, Pelosi tussle over farm bill

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, today said he has postponed action on the farm bill because there are not enough votes to pass it, but Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., put it at the top of the list of bills that the House should have finished rather than leaving town until after the election.

“We’re here standing together to say that since August 3 when Congress adjourned and November 13 when we are called back into session, we will have been in session only eight days,” Pelosi said at a news conference, according to a report in Politico.

“That’s just not right," Pelosi said. “Democrats are prepared to stay until we get the job done. That’s what we’re elected to do, to get the job done.”

Boehner said there is opposition from the left and from the right, and that there are not enough votes in the middle to pass it.

Boehner made the statements at a news conference as the House prepared to leave Washington until November 13.

House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., have said they believe there are enough House votes to pass a bill.

Peterson has been conducting his own poll of House members on how they would vote on a bill on the House floor, but a spokeswoman said today that he would not release any information on his vote count today. He told reporters Thursday he is not certain he will release either the count or what individual members said about how they would vote.

Stabenow has said the votes are there in the House if the bill is approached in a “bipartisan” way.