After three years of delays, the U.S. House passed a new version of the Farm Bill. The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate.
An updated version of the Farm Bill has passed the U.S. House on a party-line vote.
Language to supersede California's Proposition 12 rules on the housing of hogs and poultry are still in the bill, while nationwide E15 will be voted on May 13.
Transcript
After nearly a week of jockeying and verbal fisticuffs in Congress concluded, Republicans tried to drag the much-delayed Farm Bill over the finish line in the House of Representatives.
Votes were taken on dozens of amendments before the final vote took place on Thursday.
Rep. Anigie Craig, D - Minnesota: “At the end of the day, we are sitting here talking about the farm bill, and this amendment does nothing to materially address the very real issues farmers are facing as they look at planting season today. And all I could really hear is the word Brazil. We have forced our largest export markets, like China, to Brazil and Argentina because of bad policies from this administration.”
Rep. G.T. Thompson, R - Pennsylvania: “And that this bill passed with bipartisan and votes out of committee. So the the political talking points for November that this is a Partizan vote.”
Supporters of the current framing of the Farm Bill won the day by a 25-vote margin, which followed party lines.
Farm Bills stand for five years, but America’s agriculture policy is still using the terms of the Farm Bill signed in 2018. That version of the legislation has been extended three different times.
The approved House version also locks in $187 billion dollars in cuts to the food assistance program SNAP that was specified in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill signed last year.
A controversial provision that would have shielded pesticide manufacturers from legal liability and would have required more specific labeling was removed from the Bill.
A contentious measure relating to the ethanol blend E15 also was taken out of the legislation and a standalone bill is scheduled for a vote in the House on May 13.
Language that would supersede California’s Proposition 12 - a measure mandating the size of cages for hogs and chickens - remains in the House version of the bill.
There is currently no timeline for when debate will begin on the Farm Bill in the Senate chamber.
For Market to Market, I’m Peter Tubbs
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