GOP staff for the the House Agriculture Committee is warning industry groups that they need to get behind the panel’s megabill package of $300 billion in nutrition spending cuts or risk getting nothing from the $60 billion in farm bill investments also included in the proposal.
Trevor White, the committee’s policy director, sent an email to agriculture lobbying groups encouraging them to make “statements of support” and conduct “direct outreach to members off the committee” to ensure that the farm bill programs survive the reconciliation process.
“With the current budget environment, once this train leaves the station, if these investments are NOT included, it is hard to see a path forward for the remaining pieces of the farm bill,” White said in the email sent Tuesday that was viewed by POLITICO.
House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) told reporters recently that he still feels “positive” about being able to pass a separate farm bill to update policies that didn’t make it into the megabill central to enacting broad swaths of President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda. But White’s comments are the latest indication that hopes of securing a new farm bill this year are fading fast.
Thompson has also said that he wants to spearhead a “skinny,” budget-neutral farm bill later this year, if Republicans can pass the expensive farm safety net programs through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process. However, Democrats have threatened that the cuts to SNAP spending being pursued as part of the the GOP’s party-line package will mean they won’t support a separate farm bill this year.
“Chairman Thompson looks forward to working with the Ranking Member and our Senate counterparts to move the remaining farm bill provisions after reconciliation,” committee spokesperson Ben Goldey said in a statement Wednesday.
White’s email also encouraged agriculture groups to reach out to lawmakers who aren’t on the House Agriculture Committee to encourage them to support the measure’s farm bill provisions. That pressure could be critical to helping those programs survive a full House vote, as some fiscal hawks typically vote against the major subsidies included in the farm bill.
“The survival of these investments beyond our committee should not be seen as a foregone conclusion,” White wrote. “If your organization would like to see these investments included as the process moves forward, the Chairman would greatly appreciate your help by making statements of support, but also direct outreach to members off the committee.”
He also asked groups to report supportive statements and lobbying efforts to committee staff.
