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Divided Congress may challenge farm bill
The ranking member of the House Ag Committee says his top goal for the next farm bill is to complete it on time, but a new and divided Congress may present a challenge.
Representative Glenn “GT” Thompson, a Republican from Pennsylvania, tells Brownfield he would like to start auditing the 2018 Farm Bill in the first quarter of next year.
“What’s working, what’s not and what needs fine-tuning. We need to get out for field hearings.”
He says having bipartisan support is key to passing a bill but knows there could be disagreement on the nutrition title. More than two-thirds of the farm bill spending is for the nutrition title. With USDA raising the average SNAP benefit through the Thrifty Food Plan, Thompson says the program will cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years.
“In the end, there will be things we disagree about, but that’s what regular order is for. At the end of the day, we’ll take our votes and what we’re able to move forward with is what we’ll do.”
Hear our full interview with Thompson.
