Senate Ag Committee Leaders said the farm bill compromise offered by House Ag Chair Michael Conaway doesn’t go far enough.
Politico says Conaway described it as a “significant compromise.” The disagreement has slowed the efforts to reconcile the House and Senate Farm Bills.
Senate Ag Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow says the offer isn’t even close to something that the Senate can accept. The differences don’t lie in just the SNAP program. There are unresolved differences remaining in the commodity, conservation, and energy titles.
Ag Chair Pat Roberts also says the two sides aren’t as close as he’d like with time growing short. Only seven combined legislative days remain before the September 30th deadline, which is when the current bill expires. The House is actually scheduled to be out of Washington during the entire week of September 17th, which means less time for handling some of the other big issues like negotiating a government spending deal. Roberts says things went in reverse on Thursday after a “very good conversation” on Wednesday. After the meeting on Thursday, Roberts says, “Today, that walked back a little bit.
Source: National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.