The former Governor of Nebraska, who served as Secretary of Agriculture under President George W. Bush, is still making predictions. Mike Johanns does not think the prospects for a new Farm Bill are good.
Appearing at the recent Indiana Ag Policy Summit, hosted by the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Growers Association, Johanns, with Congress taking its summer recess, not much time remains on the clock. ‘If you look at the number of days available, assuming they come back on Sept. 9, you’ve got about 15 days on the schedule,” Johanns said.
“If I were to guess because the White House is up, the entire House is up, a third of the Senate is up, and it’s a coin toss for who’s going to be in control — you won’t see 15 days.” The deadline for a new Farm Bill is in September. The 2018 Farm Bill was already extended by a year, so a new Version is required before the 2018 version expires.
Led by Chairman G.T. Thompson, the House Agriculture Committee successfully marked up a bipartisan farm bill in May that modernizes risk management tools for farmers.
The Senate, however, has not taken up the issue since then, and time is running out. The American Farm Bureau recently rallied more than 500 groups representing various agricultural interests and beyond. They sent a unified message to House and Senate leadership with a letter calling on Congress to pass a farm bill this year.
Hundreds of agriculture groups, some with differing farm bill priorities, are wo.
