Senate Ag Committee crafts farm bill; Schrader optimistic it will pass this year
By Mitch Lies
House Agriculture Committee member Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., puts the odds of passing a farm bill this year at better than 50-50.
"I'm never overly optimistic, but I think there is better than a 50-50 chance," Schrader said in a phone interview April 27, one day after the Senate Agriculture Committee approved a half-trillion-dollar farm bill.
Hang-ups could emerge over funding for food stamps and other nutrition programs, Schrader said. And southern representatives could hold out for an inclusion of direct payments for some commodities, particularly rice and peanuts.
Direct payments were eliminated in the bill the Senate committee passed.
Schrader said the bill will serve as a starting point for agricultural subcommittees to "lay out the groundwork and the foundation work."
Committee leaders don't plan to bring a bill before the full committee until the Senate bill is heard on the floor, Schrader said, or June, at the earliest.
Schrader said House Republicans are looking at chopping $10 billion in addition to the $23 billion cut proposed in the Senate version, with most of it coming from food stamp and nutrition programs.
That, he said, won't fly with House Democrats.
"I know from visiting our food banks a week and a half ago that their case load is increasing," said Schrader, who represents Oregon's 5th congressional district. "It is not going down. This is not the right time to make huge reductions in those programs.
"There are a lot of rural communities in need as much as urban communities," he said.
"It is going to be tough to get Democrat votes with the House program taking $33 billion out of the ag budget, and almost all of that out of nutrition programs," he said.
Conservation and specialty crop programs fared well in the Senate version, Schrader said, with specialty crops receiving about a $1 billion boost in funding.
Organic crop programs also scored well in the Senate version, Schrader said.
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