Senate Agriculture Committee Republican Roger Marshall said Wednesday farmers would be better off if work on a new farm bill is punted into next year, when Republicans could be in control of the White House and both houses of Congress.
The Kansas senator’s remarks came at an agricultural luncheon he was co-hosting on a farm outside Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention is taking place this week, and right after House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., told the crowd of delegates, lawmakers and lobbyists that he still hoped to pass a new farm bill this year.
"We’re not going to get a farm bill done in the near future, it’s just not going to happen,” Marshall said. “Maybe we'll get something done in the lame duck session. I'm telling you it would be a lot better with Sen. John Boozman as the chairperson of the Ag Committee, and probably with an Amy Klobuchar as the … ranking member of the Ag Committee. That’s when we would get a good farm bill done.”
The Senate Ag Committee is currently at a stalemate over a new bill, and Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., isn’t running for re-election.
Boozman, R-Ark., would take over as chair, if Republicans win control of the Senate, an increasingly likely outcome given the turmoil around the Democratic Party and President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign.
Boozman and Thompson are both pushing for far higher increases in commodity program reference prices than Stabenow supports, and they are also crossing two red lines she has drawn by pushing for a cut in the nutrition title and the removal of climate guardrails around Inflation Reduction Act conservation funding.
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“What Sen. Stabenow has presented to us on the reference prices and Title One programs is actually a step backwards” for wheat and sorghum, major crops in Marshall's state, Marshall said.
After his address to the group, Agri-Pulse asked Marshall if a Trump-Vance administration would make it easier to pass a farm bill. “Absolutely, they will,” Marshall responded.
“They’ll follow our lead. If we have a Republican-led Senate to join what 'GT' Thompson did on the House side, then we’ll get that across the finish line in no time.”
Thompson insisted to the crowd that he remained optimistic about getting his committee’s farm bill passed by the House.
House Ag Chairman Glenn "GT" ThompsonHowever, he acknowledged the skepticism about the bill’s prospects on the House floor.
“You just remember those naysayers that have 100% record of being wrong at this point,” Thompson said, an apparent reference to doubts about the bill’s prospects in committee.
Passing a new farm bill in the next Congress may not be that easy either, because of issues with paying for some of its spending. The cost of the House bill isn’t fully offset, based on estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office. Boozman hasn’t released bill text, but the proposal he has outlined is similar to the House version.
Chuck Conner, president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, was at the event and said later that Marshall’s comments “add a little bit of pessimism” to his own assessment of the farm bill prospects.
“Sen. Marshall today made it pretty clear that he's not anxious to give up a whole lot right now, given the prospects of next year. [He] didn't seem in a huge hurry to get the farm bill done. Now, the flip side of that equation is obviously we heard Chairman 'GT' Thompson, you know, say he's going to do everything he can, and the chairman of the House Ag committee wields a big stick.”
Conner isn’t ready to give up on getting a bill enacted this year. “Farmers really do need to know the rules of this game,” he said.
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