On June 20, the U.S. House of Representatives voted down their version of the Farm Bill by a vote of 195 to 234, largely due to a conflict over inclusion of funding for nutrition programs that was added to the bill, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. As a result, House Republican leadership separated the "farm" portion of the bill from the nutrition language and voted on the "farm only" provisions (H.R. 2642), on July 11 passing it by a partisan vote of 216-208.

Much of the disagreement on the full Farm Bill focused on provisions that fund nutrition programs. In the 1970's Congressional leaders began incorporating funding for food stamps within the farm legislation as a way to increase interest and support for Farm Bills from lawmakers that represent mostly urban districts. The full House Farm Bill included a $20.5 billion cut to nutrition programs over the next decade. Many Democrats felt these cuts were too large and many conservative Republicans thought the cuts were too small, eroding support for the full farm legislation. As a result, the full bill failed to pass the House and Republican leadership decided to separate the farm provisions from the nutrition provisions of the bill as a way to get House approval of the legislation.

The "farm only" provisions include titles 11 and 12 from the original bill that fund and authorize farm subsidies as well as consolidated conservation programs. The pared down version also includes amendments that were made on the House floor during debate of the full bill. One of those amendments would restrict the U.S. Department of Agriculture to require only acre-for-acre mitigation of wetlands rather than considering equivalent function and value of the lost wetland. The bill that passed the House also does not include the agreement to recouple conservation compliance to crop insurance that was forged between conservation and agriculture groups and included in the Senate bill.

"Ducks Unlimited was among the 532 agriculture and conservation organizations that sent a letter to Speaker Boehner asking the House for bipartisan support of a comprehensive, intact farm bill," commented Dale Hall, CEO for Ducks Unlimited. "Again, it is extremely frustrating that a coalition of such a number of broad interests can find common ground in our need for long-term agriculture policy, and a Congressional body of almost 100 fewer members chooses to ignore our recommendation. This halved bill leaves the farm bill with no clear path to a conference result with the comprehensive Senate-passed farm bill."

Hall is not the only one to question whether the House strategy will lead to a final Farm Bill that can pass both chambers and be signed by the President. The White House issued a veto threat prior to the House vote on the pared down bill. In addition, Representative Collin Peterson from Minnesota, the ranking Democratic member of the House Agriculture Committee, expressed doubt that a Farm Bill without nutrition programs could survive a Conference Committee with the Senate, where Democrats currently hold a majority of the seats.

"I still believe splitting the farm bill is a mistake in the long run," Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, said. "They are ignoring the advice of most of the groups affected by the bill, and I see no clear path to getting a bill passed by the House and Senate and signed by the president."

The Senate passed their version of the Farm Bill in early June and it included the nutrition programs. Debbie Stabenow, Chair of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee called a Farm Bill without nutrition programs a non-starter in the Senate.

"The bill passed by the House is not a real farm bill and is an insult to rural America," Stabenow said. "We will go to conference with the bipartisan, comprehensive farm bill that was passed in the Senate that not only reforms programs, supports families in need and creates agriculture jobs but also saves billions more than the extremely flawed House bill."

After the vote, House leadership committed to moving quickly into conference with the Senate on the farm provisions and to consider the nutrition programs separately. However many question whether the chambers will be able to craft a compromise allowing a Farm Bill to actually be enacted before it expires on September 30 of this year. (pmr & jas)