House Ag pledges to pass another farm bill
February 26, 2013 | 04:54 PM
In its annual letter to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the House Agriculture Committee today said it would pass another “fiscally responsible” farm bill that “improves on the product the committee passed last year” and also put pressure on the House leadership to bring it to the floor.
The letter is required under the 1974 Congressional Budget Act and the committee passed it by a unanimous voice vote.
In a signal that this year’s bill will eliminate direct payments, as last year’s bill did, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., wrote, “The committee firmly believes in a true safety net, not payments regardless of market conditions.”
“We owe it to put together an effective farm bill that saves money; that does better and cheaper,” said Rep. K. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, the second highest ranking Republican on the committee, who chaired the hearing in the absence of Lucas, who was detained in Oklahoma by a snow storm.
In what could be considered a signal to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., Conaway added, “To fail in such a vital mission is to send the message that rural America and the other important facets of life a farm bill touches don’t matter.”
Peterson noted that the House and Senate Agriculture committees had been the only ones to fulfill a mandate from congressional leadership to committees to propose savings.
“We are the only committee that takes this seriously,” he said. “Leave us alone. Let the Ag committee do our work and we’ll get it done.”
Peterson also said, however, that the farm bill must contain a dairy provision to get his support, and added that without his support, “it’s not going to pass.”
Conaway, who is next in line to chair Agriculture when Lucas is forced by Republican term limit rules to give up the post at the end of 2014, said, “I am filling in for Chairman Lucas this morning because thankfully he was snowed in.”
“I say thankfully not because I don’t want our chairman here, but because I know he would agree with me that our part of the country desperately needs the kind of moisture we got Sunday night,” he said.
Conaway recently visited Lodi, Calif., in what has been interpreted as a trip to learn more about agriculture outside Texas, according to the Lodi News-Sentinel.
The letter is required under the 1974 Congressional Budget Act and the committee passed it by a unanimous voice vote.
In a signal that this year’s bill will eliminate direct payments, as last year’s bill did, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., wrote, “The committee firmly believes in a true safety net, not payments regardless of market conditions.”
“We owe it to put together an effective farm bill that saves money; that does better and cheaper,” said Rep. K. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, the second highest ranking Republican on the committee, who chaired the hearing in the absence of Lucas, who was detained in Oklahoma by a snow storm.
In what could be considered a signal to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., Conaway added, “To fail in such a vital mission is to send the message that rural America and the other important facets of life a farm bill touches don’t matter.”
Peterson noted that the House and Senate Agriculture committees had been the only ones to fulfill a mandate from congressional leadership to committees to propose savings.
“We are the only committee that takes this seriously,” he said. “Leave us alone. Let the Ag committee do our work and we’ll get it done.”
Peterson also said, however, that the farm bill must contain a dairy provision to get his support, and added that without his support, “it’s not going to pass.”
Conaway, who is next in line to chair Agriculture when Lucas is forced by Republican term limit rules to give up the post at the end of 2014, said, “I am filling in for Chairman Lucas this morning because thankfully he was snowed in.”
“I say thankfully not because I don’t want our chairman here, but because I know he would agree with me that our part of the country desperately needs the kind of moisture we got Sunday night,” he said.
Conaway recently visited Lodi, Calif., in what has been interpreted as a trip to learn more about agriculture outside Texas, according to the Lodi News-Sentinel.
