House Republican leaders have been struggling to get the votes to move a partisan fiscal 2024 funding bill for USDA and FDA ahead of the long summer recess, raising fresh doubts about how soon lawmakers can start working on the farm bill this fall.
Nearly 160 amendments have been filed for consideration on the FY24 Agriculture spending bill last week in anticipation of floor debate on the measure this week.
Hard-line GOP conservatives have been demanding deeper cuts in spending than the House Appropriations Committee's FY24 measures already contain, and as of this weekend the House Rules Committee had not scheduled a meeting to consider a rule for the Agriculture bill that will determine which of the proposed amendments get votes.
Some 21 members of the House Freedom Caucus signed a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., earlier this month, insisting that overall spending for FY24 be cut to the FY22 level of $1.47 trillion, and without the use of funding rescissions to exceed that limit. According to a report in Roll Call, senior House GOP members met Wednesday with some of the Freedom Caucus to discuss making deeper cuts in the legislation.
The FY24 Agriculture bill, which already has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate, would provide a total of $25.3 billion for USDA, FDA and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a reduction of 2% from the amount they got for FY23, and even that funding level depends on a mix of about $8 billion in cuts to pandemic assistance and Inflation Reduction Act allocations to USDA.
The slow process of moving appropriations bills with the end of the fiscal year looming Sept. 30 threatens to push action on a new farm bill deeper into the fall.
The House is scheduled to be in recess after this week until Sept. 12 and in session for only three weeks before October.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., told reporters the lack of legislative days ahead “may impact when leadership is able to give me a week to take our bill. I’m hoping to mark our bill up soon after we come back in September, and then that next step would be the House floor, and obviously there’s a lot of competition for time.”
If GOP leaders can get an agreement to take up the Agriculture spending bill this week, Thompson will have to deal with amendments to that measure that could affect farm bill programs.
The amendments include proposals to eliminate international food aid and cut other programs and agencies back to FY19 spending levels.
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Another amendment, proposed by Freedom Caucus member Byron Donalds, R-Fla., would expand SNAP work requirements to people as young as 16 and as old as 64. That goes too far for Thompson, who called the proposal “completely inappropriate.” He argues that the maximum age of 54 should be left alone after it was raised in the debt ceiling agreement.
Other proposed amendments would stop USDA from operating commodity checkoff programs, block implementation of the USDA Equity Commission’s interim report, and prohibit funding for climate or green energy initiative.
The House also could vote this week on a Senate resolution aimed at overturning the Biden administration’s listing of the Lesser prairie chicken under the Endangered Species Act.
The Senate narrowly approved the Congressional Review Act resolution sponsored by Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., on a 50-48 vote in May. House approval of the resolution would send the measure to President Joe Biden, who would likely veto it; the Senate margin is nowhere close to the two-thirds majority needed to overturn a veto.
Also this week, Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., hopes to introduce a new bill that would allow year-round, nationwide E15 sales in exchange for concessions to small refineries.
The measure sponsored by Nebraska Republican Deb Fischer and the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito, would include relief for small refineries that have struggled with the cost of complying with the Renewable Fuel Standard, sources say.
Here is a list of agriculture- or rural-related events scheduled for this week in Washington and elsewhere (all times EDT):
Monday, July 24
Agricultural and Applied Economics Association annual meeting, through Tuesday, Marriott Marquis.
4 p.m. – USDA releases weekly Crop Progress report.
Tuesday, July 25
9 a.m. – USDA releases the monthly Food Price Outlook.
Wednesday, July 26
10 a.m. – House Small Business Committee hearing, “Rural Entrepreneurship: Examining the Challenges and State of Rural Small Businesses,” 2360 Rayburn.
2:30 p.m. – Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on the farm bill, 628 Dirksen.
Thursday, July 27
8:30 a.m. – USDA releases Weekly Export Sales report.
10:30 a.m. – Senate Appropriations Committee meeting to consider the fiscal 2024 Defense, Interior-Environment, Labor-HHS and Homeland Security spending bills, 106 Dirksen.
2 p.m. – House Oversight and Accountability subcommittee hearing, “Hemp in the Modern World: The Yearslong Wait for FDA Action” 2247 Rayburn.
Friday, July 28
Noah Wicks contributed to this report.
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