A new five-year farm bill quickly cleared the Senate Agriculture Committee Tuesday, despite regional sparring between Midwest and Southern Republicans over revisions in the commodity title to win support from peanut and rice producers.
The action came as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) failed in a behind-the-scenes effort to convince the committee leadership to include his legislation to legalize the cultivation of industrial hemp — a priority for farm interests back home in Kentucky.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told POLITICO that he and McConnell are still pressing Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) — a member of the Agriculture panel — to support their efforts when the giant bill gets to the floor.
McConnell, who is up for reelection in 2014, was not immediately available for comment. But he stood out as the sole Southern Republican on the Agriculture committee to oppose the farm bill on the final 15-5 roll call Tuesday afternoon.
Others voting “nay” were Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kas.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, the sole Democratic dissenter.
Gillibrand’s vote reflected her concern over proposed savings from the food stamp program, reforms that could impact New York disproportionately. But the far greater political challenge facing Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) is across-the-aisle: the regional and ideological split seen in the GOP.
Together with McConnell’s hemp issue, this sets up what could be a cantankerous Senate floor debate this month. And Stabenow’s hope is that farm-state Republicans will ultimately come back together to get past the 60-vote threshold required to overcome protracted delays.
The House Agriculture Committee is slated to markup its own bill Wednesday, and in making her concessions to Southern growers, Stabenow is also trying to open the door toward a final deal with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), whose roots lie in the South as well.
Nonetheless, some of the chairwoman’s staunchest Midwest allies in last year’s farm bill debate have been lost along the way.
Roberts had been her ranking Republican and partner on the Senate floor a year ago, Thune brings real ties to the GOP leadership, and Johanns served as Agriculture secretary in President George W. Bush’s administration.
Roberts is the most strong-willed of the lot, largely because his fierce opposition to the revived target price program tailored to Southern crops.
“This is not a reform bill. This is a rear-view mirror bill,” Roberts said. He singled out the target prices set for rice and peanuts as more than equal to the cost of production — “essentially guaranteeing that a farmer profits if yields are average or above average.”
Stabenow bristled a bit at the suggestion that all reform was off the boards. Her bill in fact makes landmark changes in doing away with direct cash payments to producers and tightening eligibility for government subsidies. And despite cuts in the conservation title, she won praise from the World Wildlife Fund for an agreement that will require all farmers getting crop insurance to also comply with wetlands management rules, for example.
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