Today the Senate Agriculture Committee breezed through its mark up of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 and sent the draft farm bill to the full Senate on a vote of 20-1 (Senator Chuck Grassley, R-IA, voted “no”). The committee voted through a slate of amendments to the draft text released late last week. Dozens of amendments were incorporated into…
Senate Joins Farm Bill Fray Last Friday the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry released its draft farm bill, kicking off the Senate’s effort to pass new omnibus legislation before some provisions of the current law expire in September. The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (“AIA”), which arrives on the heels of the House’s failure to pass its own…
From One Washington to the Other Did you ever see that episode of The Office where both Pam and Angela learn they want to name their babies Phillip, so they constantly try to one-up each other in showing why that name means more to them than it does the other? Well, that’s what D.C. is like to Washingtonians. I grew…
Editor’s Note: This post is part of our series on marker bills and the 2018 Farm Bill. You can track the farm bill’s progress through Congress here and elsewhere on this blog. Farmers face a uniquely high amount of risk. An unexpected drought, an influx of pests, or a lower than expected crop yield can all have devastating effects on…
Last week 25 FBLE faculty, students, and staff descended on Capitol Hill to share our research and help Congress write a farm bill that creates opportunity for all farmers, provides a reliable safety net against hunger, and conserves the health of our shared natural resources. FBLE timed the trip to coincide with debate over the House farm bill, H.R. 2, which…
Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) President Rob Verchick recently sat down to talk with me about the connections between climate change, food security, and policymaking tools like the Farm Bill that could be better used to promote sustainable agricultural practices. I’m excited to share an audio recording of that conversation as CPR prepares to “soft launch” their new “Connect the Dots” podcast. It’s a…
Last week, the House Agriculture Committee passed a pock-marked, micro-legislated Farm Bill along strict party lines. It’s a shameful goody bag of legislative delights for a few that comes at the expense of the majority of the American people. Some lowlights: The bill holds our hungriest Americans hostage by conditioning SNAP benefits (food stamps) on job training (what kind of…
House Farm Bill Moves Out of Committee On Wednesday, House Republicans moved the first draft farm bill out of the House Agriculture Committee on a party-line vote. H.R. 2, or the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, will likely be considered by the full House within the next month. On the whole, H.R. 2 is an ominous cloud that portends…
One marker bill currently before the House Agriculture Committee, the Crop Insurance Modernization Act, proposes some of the same reforms to crop insurance as FBLE’s report on Productivity and Risk Management. One of its proposals involves strengthening incentives in crop insurance contracts for farmers to integrate better conservation practices into their regular operations. The bill, also known as H.R. 4865,…
Earlier today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX) released the text of the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018. In the coming days and weeks, FBLE will provide analysis of how the draft bill stacks up against the recommendations of our recent reports. In the meantime, you can read the Chairman’s highlights and critiques from leading sustainable agriculture, anti-poverty, and anti-hunger…