Getting the farm bill done this fall is a “high hurdle,” according to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts. The Kansas Republican told reporters last week it would be easier to write a bill once a budget is in place, noting that the Senate Budget Committee has said the Senate would have a budget this year. Roberts did note that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has agreed it would be better to pass a farm bill “sooner rather than later,” according to the Hagstrom Report. Roberts added that he and Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Debbie Stabenow “are a team,” and that the committee had marked up a bill quickly in 2014 and could do it again. At the beginning of August, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway said work on the 2018 Farm Bill would start within the next eight weeks, making House work on the Farm bill just two weeks away.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.