Peterson: Boehner wants to finish bill by September 30, Cantor is problem
July 29, 2013 | 03:54 PM
The House leadership is unlikely to appoint farm bill conferees this week or bring up a food stamp bill, according to House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn.
In a little-noticed radio interview last Wednesday, Peterson said he and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., had spoken that day with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who said he does not want to appoint conferees until September because he does not want to give Democrats an opportunity to offer motions to instruct that would be designed to embarrass the Republicans.
The interview was on the Farm Talk program of AgNews 890 AM, a Fargo, N.D., radio station.
Peterson noted that under the rules of the House if conferees are appointed and no conference is held 20 days after they are named, motions to instruct can be offered. Congress leaves Washington on Friday for a five-week recess, until September 9.
Peterson also said Boehner told him that he wants to finish the bill before September 30, when the current extension of the 2008 farm bill expires. But Peterson also noted that Boehner had made statements before about taking up the farm bill before and that problems had arisen.
Peterson said he is not pleased with the decision not to appoint conferees until September because the current law expires on September 30, and because Congress will also be focused on the issue of shutting down the government if appropriations bills are not passed by that date, which is the end of the government’s fiscal year.
It is vital that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps, be included in the farm bill because there “are only 50 of us left in the House that come from farm districts,” Peterson said.
He also said he does not believe the House needs to take up a SNAP bill even though it has passed only a farm-program bill, because the Senate farm bill contains a nutrition title. He also said that in his conversations with Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., he has “helped move her closer to Lucas’s position,” but he did not provide any details on that point.
In that interview, and in another with the Red River Farm Network and in an appearance with Rep. Dave Loebseck, D-Iowa, on Saturday, Peterson said that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., is holding up the bill.
Cantor and his staff, Peterson said, are listening to the Club for Growth, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, conservative leader Grover Norquist and The Wall Street Journal editorial page. All these entities, he added, want to end both the food stamp program and farm programs.
According to a report in the Iowa City Press-Citizen Online, he added, “If we’re going to drug-test food stamp people, we should drug-test farmers or congressmen. Anyone that gets federal funding then should get drug tested.”
Also, a Republican leadership aide confirmed that the House would not take up a food stamp bill this week, The Hill reported Friday.
In a little-noticed radio interview last Wednesday, Peterson said he and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., had spoken that day with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who said he does not want to appoint conferees until September because he does not want to give Democrats an opportunity to offer motions to instruct that would be designed to embarrass the Republicans.
The interview was on the Farm Talk program of AgNews 890 AM, a Fargo, N.D., radio station.
Peterson noted that under the rules of the House if conferees are appointed and no conference is held 20 days after they are named, motions to instruct can be offered. Congress leaves Washington on Friday for a five-week recess, until September 9.
Peterson also said Boehner told him that he wants to finish the bill before September 30, when the current extension of the 2008 farm bill expires. But Peterson also noted that Boehner had made statements before about taking up the farm bill before and that problems had arisen.
Peterson said he is not pleased with the decision not to appoint conferees until September because the current law expires on September 30, and because Congress will also be focused on the issue of shutting down the government if appropriations bills are not passed by that date, which is the end of the government’s fiscal year.
It is vital that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps, be included in the farm bill because there “are only 50 of us left in the House that come from farm districts,” Peterson said.
He also said he does not believe the House needs to take up a SNAP bill even though it has passed only a farm-program bill, because the Senate farm bill contains a nutrition title. He also said that in his conversations with Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., he has “helped move her closer to Lucas’s position,” but he did not provide any details on that point.
In that interview, and in another with the Red River Farm Network and in an appearance with Rep. Dave Loebseck, D-Iowa, on Saturday, Peterson said that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., is holding up the bill.
Cantor and his staff, Peterson said, are listening to the Club for Growth, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, conservative leader Grover Norquist and The Wall Street Journal editorial page. All these entities, he added, want to end both the food stamp program and farm programs.
According to a report in the Iowa City Press-Citizen Online, he added, “If we’re going to drug-test food stamp people, we should drug-test farmers or congressmen. Anyone that gets federal funding then should get drug tested.”
Also, a Republican leadership aide confirmed that the House would not take up a food stamp bill this week, The Hill reported Friday.
