The long-awaited text of the Senate’s Farm Bill was released on Tuesday with some hoped-for pieces missing. Senate Ag Committee Chair John Boozman highlighted what IS included.
“It modernizes USDA loan limits, so producers can access the capital that they need. The world is totally different now than it was in 2018, certainly than it was in 2012. It continues investing in rural broadband and water infrastructure, it strengthens rural communities and supports the next generations of farmers and ranchers. It’s built for America, built for rural America.”
What was missing were big-ticket items like California’s Prop 12 and year-round E15 sales. Boozman says his goal is to get the bulk of the bill passed, and the needed Democratic votes particularly for E15 cannot be found.
“We really haven’t identified anybody that will step up and say that they’re for this on the Democratic side. I’m personally for it, but again, like I say, there doesn’t seem to be anybody willing to step up on the other side and say that they are.”
The plan is to bring the bill up for committee vote after July 4th.
“What we’d like to do is leave this out there for a couple weeks, and then we’re going to come back after the two-week break, and during that period before August, work hard to actually have a vote and get it out of committee.”
Boozman said financial assistance for farmers in the form of additional bridge payments would be addressed separately from the Farm Bill.