Senate Republican Whip John Thune said Wednesday that another one-year farm bill extension will likely be needed amid the ongoing partisan gridlock over current proposals.
Passing an extension would enable lawmakers to "start fresh" in a new Congress next year, Thune told reporters in his home state at DakotaFest in Mitchell, South Dakota.
Thune ranks second in the Senate GOP leadership and is a leading contender to replace Mitch McConnell as Senate GOP leader,
Thune said he has not seen any signals from Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., indicating she intends to move a bill through committee, or from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., about putting a farm bill on the floor.
"I just don't see any evidence that any of that's happened," Thune said. "I wish it were otherwise, but it seems to me that we do another year, another extension, and this gets punted to January."
Last fall, lawmakers extended the 2018 farm bill by one year. Authority for some programs is set to expire as soon as Sept. 30. Lawmakers would need to act on extension by the end of the year to avoid triggering laws dating back to 1938 and 1949 that would force USDA to take steps in 2025 to dramatically raise the price of milk, wheat and other commodities.
What the farm bill process could look like next year will depend on the outcomes of this November's election.
Republicans have a shot at winning back control of the Senate. If that happens, Arkansas Republican John Boozman would become chair of the Senate Ag Committee and could pursue a different farm bill than the one proposed by Stabenow this spring.
"I don't like the fact that we're kicking the can down the road again, but I do think that next year we're going to be in a better position to get a bill that's more to our liking," Thune said.
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Democrats currently hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate, though West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin's retirement in a deep red state could easily bring it to a 50-50 split, in which case the vice president would break partisan ties, according to race ratings from the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter.
Two incumbent Democrats, Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, are prime targets for Republicans, and several other Democratic seats are at risk as well.
If Democrats perform well in the upcoming election in both the House and Senate, Thune said it was "not outside the realm of possibility" that Republicans would try to iron out a deal with the current majority by the end of this year. But he said it would take several weeks to agree on and move the legislation.
"Depending on how the election comes out, could it happen? Yeah, possibly," he said. "Is it likely? I think the answer is no, but we'll see."
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