Senate signals passage of budget deal with implications for Ag appropriations and farm bill
December 17, 2013 | 05:06 PM
The Senate today passed a procedural motion on the budget bill that signals the bill will be passed and sent to President Barack Obama for his signature.
The deal, which was worked out by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis, has implications for both the remainder of the fiscal year 2014 Agriculture appropriations bill and for a new farm bill.
The Senate voted 67-33, with 12 Republicans joining the Senates’ 55 Democrats to end debate, National Journal reported. A vote on final passage, which could occur later today but is more likely to take place Wednesday, will require only 51 votes.
The House passed the bill last week. The White House has signaled that Obama would like to sign the measure before he leaves this weekend to spend the holidays in his birth state of Hawaii.
As soon as the bill passes, congressional leaders are likely to inform the chairs of the Appropriations subcommittees how much money they will have to spend for the remainder of the fiscal year. These allocations are likely to be higher than the earlier House appropriations but lower than the Senate allocations.
The current continuing resolution that is funding the government runs out January 15. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., has already said that her committee will reach agreement on appropriations bills before that date, and the House appropriators are expected to file suit.
The House and Senate Agriculture appropriations subcommittees and their staffs “will go into overdrive as soon as Senate budget vote done,” Ferd Hoefner, the policy director of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition told The Hagstrom Report.
Hoefner added that there are “two intriguing overlaps between approps and farm bill.”
Both the House and Senate appropriations bills cut farm bill funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program and the House bill also cuts funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program.
In addition, Hoefner noted, the House and Senate bills contain measures affecting management of the Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration but they are different.
The budget deal, Hoefner said, also contains a provision that would allow the Agriculture Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to charge user fees to farmers seeking technical assistance. But that provision, Hoefner said, could be reversed in the farm bill. NSAC and the National Association of Conservation Districts oppose that user fee.
Leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees have stayed out of the limelight in their negotiations.
“There’s not much to report beyond the fact that staff is working diligently to resolve remaining issues to a point where the conference can move forward with an agreement,” Chris Gallegos, a spokesman for Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said in an email.
National Journal — Senate Moves Closer to a Budget Deal
The deal, which was worked out by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis, has implications for both the remainder of the fiscal year 2014 Agriculture appropriations bill and for a new farm bill.
The Senate voted 67-33, with 12 Republicans joining the Senates’ 55 Democrats to end debate, National Journal reported. A vote on final passage, which could occur later today but is more likely to take place Wednesday, will require only 51 votes.
The House passed the bill last week. The White House has signaled that Obama would like to sign the measure before he leaves this weekend to spend the holidays in his birth state of Hawaii.
As soon as the bill passes, congressional leaders are likely to inform the chairs of the Appropriations subcommittees how much money they will have to spend for the remainder of the fiscal year. These allocations are likely to be higher than the earlier House appropriations but lower than the Senate allocations.
The current continuing resolution that is funding the government runs out January 15. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., has already said that her committee will reach agreement on appropriations bills before that date, and the House appropriators are expected to file suit.
The House and Senate Agriculture appropriations subcommittees and their staffs “will go into overdrive as soon as Senate budget vote done,” Ferd Hoefner, the policy director of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition told The Hagstrom Report.
Hoefner added that there are “two intriguing overlaps between approps and farm bill.”
Both the House and Senate appropriations bills cut farm bill funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program and the House bill also cuts funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program.
In addition, Hoefner noted, the House and Senate bills contain measures affecting management of the Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration but they are different.
The budget deal, Hoefner said, also contains a provision that would allow the Agriculture Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to charge user fees to farmers seeking technical assistance. But that provision, Hoefner said, could be reversed in the farm bill. NSAC and the National Association of Conservation Districts oppose that user fee.
Leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees have stayed out of the limelight in their negotiations.
“There’s not much to report beyond the fact that staff is working diligently to resolve remaining issues to a point where the conference can move forward with an agreement,” Chris Gallegos, a spokesman for Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said in an email.
National Journal — Senate Moves Closer to a Budget Deal
