House Ag Chair Releases Farm Bill Draft, Includes Prop 12 Fix
House Ag Committee Chair GT Thompson (R-PA) laid out his title-by-title overview of the 2024 Farm Bill on Wednesday.
He called the legislation a product that happens when the development process is extensive and transparent, which included feedback from members of both political parties, stakeholder input from across the U.S., and some tough conversations. Thompson says he plans to markup his bill on May 23.
Ranking Member David Scott (D-GA) says, “Ag Committee Democrats presented a farm bill counterproposal to our Republican colleagues as part of an ongoing, years-long process that could invest tens of billions in the farm bill safety net without any cuts to SNAP benefits.” He added, “Unfortunately, Republicans rejected this bipartisan approach in favor of a partisan bill with an untenable funding scheme. By insisting on poison pill policies, Republicans have turned what could have been a genuinely bipartisan bill into a messaging exercise to appease their right flank that has no chance of becoming law.”
In Thompson’s overview under Title 12: Miscellaneous, one of his bullet points says, “Clarifies that states and local governments cannot impose a condition or standard on the production of covered livestock unless the livestock is physically located within such state or local government.” This appears to be in response to California’s Proposition 12.
In the Senate, Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow unveiled the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act, which she says contains more than 100 bipartisan bills and puts the 2024 Farm Bill back on track to being signed into law by the end of the year.
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