Republicans reject Stabenow’s farm bill proposal before the ink could even dry
The plan now is to pass another one-year extension but Democrats warn the lack of a full five-year measure creates unnecessary uncertainty that impacts us all.
First Things First
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello. Welcome back to Once Upon a Hill. Welp, that didn’t last long. Congressional Republicans on Tuesday forcefully rejected a proposal Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) released the day before for the farm bill, the sweeping piece of legislation Congress passes every five years to set national agriculture, nutrition, conservation and forestry policy.
Instead, House GOP leadership is backing a one-year extension that will likely be attached to the short-term funding bill—known as a continuing resolution or CR, for short—Congress must pass by Dec. 20 to keep the government open. Billions of dollars in aid for farmers impacted by commodity losses in recent years are also expected to be attached to the stopgap funding measure.
Several GOP lawmakers—including Rep. GT Thompson of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the House Agriculture Committee—dismissed the proposal as a legacy project for Stabenow, who is retiring at the end of the year. A House Democratic aide told me they believed congressional Republicans are uninterested in reauthorizing the farm bill during the current lame-duck session while Democrats still control the Senate and White House because the GOP will have a unified government next year and can attempt to slash programs like SNAP, which provides low- to no-income people with financial assistance to purchase food.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), fresh off his re-election as the top House Democrat on Tuesday, told me he hoped Congress could find the common ground required to reauthorize the farm bill to meet the needs of farmers and the Americans who rely on them while added Democrats would defend SNAP benefits.
“Certainly, we’ll continue to protect nutritional assistance for Americans all across the country—that’s in urban America, rural America, exurban America, the heartland of America, in small-town America,” he said. “That will be a priority for us.”
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who serves on the House Agriculture Committee, said the uncertainty that exists without a five-year farm bill is palpable in her district.
“The only constant is that we don’t have any answers on the farm bill,” she told me. “Every time we try to give an answer, every time we think something’s gonna happen, it doesn’t.”
The indecisiveness provides a silver lining though: “They’re reeling against SNAP benefits, but so long as nothing happens, SNAP remains safe,” she said. “So that’s a good part about it. The bad part about it is that, as we are consistently talking about the cost of food in this country, is the number of farms that may be going under because there is a lack of certainty—the lack of certainty in general around the farm bill, the lack of certainty in general when we start talking about the budget, all it does is put those that we need the most to kind of take care of us in compromising situations.”
Until Congress acts, Crockett said farmers are in an uncomfortable holding pattern.
“If you have some certainty and you know what’s going to happen, then you can make plans accordingly. But right now, we’ve had so many of our small farmers consistently have to shut down, and they’re struggling,” she said. “They need help—from the climate change issues that they're struggling with to just the fact that, literally, they’re not getting the funds recouped that they’re looking for when they are having those issues.”
Crockett argued that not just farmers are affected by the partisan gridlock.
“The food don’t just show up on the shelves,” she said. “They’ve got to make plans in order to get it there in time. So it’s a problem for all of us. This is not an urban issue or a rural issue. This is an all-of-us-issue.”
Stabenow’s proposal, entitled The Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act, calls for $39 billion in new resources and aims to provide farmers with long-term certainty, improve disaster relief, expand crop insurance and ensure faster support for agriculture—including increased reference prices for 22 major crops. It also includes significant investments in biofuels, local foods, agricultural research, and voluntary conservation programs, rolling in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. The proposal also defends nutrition assistance programs like SNAP, which she argues must not be cut, especially in light of rising food insecurity.
In a floor speech advocating for the proposal on Monday, Stabenow framed it as the only viable path to passing a comprehensive, five-year farm bill that addresses the needs of farmers, families and rural communities across the country. She outlined her previous efforts to pass a balanced, bipartisan farm bill in line with the six she worked on as a senator and top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee. Stabenow acknowledged the key concerns raised by farmers across the country, particularly regarding crop insurance, the need for a stronger farm safety net, and the increasing struggles of rural communities, including food insecurity, healthcare access and high-speed internet. She also criticized the GOP-led House version of the farm bill as a proposal that disproportionately benefits southern commodities at the expense of other farmers, particularly those in the Midwest who grow fruits and vegetables or run diversified operations.
“Looking to the future, Project 2025, the road map for the incoming Trump Administration, proposes eliminating [Agriculture Risk] and [Price Loss Coverage]—the very same programs the House Republican bill makes their top priority. It would also gut crop insurance, terminate US sugar production, and slash trade promotion programs,” she said. “This is why it should be no secret why the House Farm Bill has yet to receive a vote on the House Floor—it does not have the Republican votes to pass. And the last time I checked, that chamber will be similarly divided in the 119th Congress. So, I would encourage my Republican colleagues to rethink their proposal to make the largest cut to SNAP in more than 30 years, and join with us to pass a meaningful five-year Farm Bill now that includes immediate assistance that our farmers need.”
Happenings
The House will meet at 10 a.m. and take first and last votes at 4:45 p.m.
The Senate will meet at 10 a.m. to resume consideration of Rebecca Pennell's nomination to be US District Judge for the Eastern District of Washington.
President Joe Biden will receive his daily intelligence briefing this morning.
Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Kalaoa, HI, with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and has no public events on her schedule.
Biden’s week ahead:
Thursday: The president will welcome the Boston Celtics to the White House to celebrate their 2024 NBA championship.
Friday: President Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will host a dinner on the South Lawn.
Do you have questions about the lame-duck session or the incoming Trump presidency? Drop me a line at michael@onceuponahill.com or send me a message below to get in touch and I’ll report back with answers.
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