KEEP FIGHTING TO BUILD A BETTER FARM BILL

This is the first blog post of many in our series on how we can build a better Farm Bill.

Strangely, the U.S. House of Representatives failed to pass its shoe-in majority version of the 2018 Farm Bill. Why? Because, surprisingly, something worse is possible.

At the same time the highly flawed HR 2, Agriculture and Food Act of 2018, was approaching the House Floor, a group of moderate Republicans who want immigration reform joined with most Democrats on a bipartisan bill that gives Dreamers a chance. As this group got within a few signatures of the 218 needed for the House to vote (and pass) the Dreamer Bill, 30 conservative members of the Freedom Caucus (who wanted to pass anti-immigrant legislation instead) rebelled by voting against the Farm Bill. So the House Farm Bill failed on May 18 with a vote of 198-213.

In a last minute twist of Republican infighting, leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives are contemplating keeping the defeated “Harm Bill” in play by reintroducing it as an Agriculture, Nutrition and Immigration Bill.

Who’s for what?