Republicans in the House have accused Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of pushing Democrats on the House Agricultural Committee to oppose the House version of the farm bill. The biggest objection is over proposed changes to the nutrition title.
However, ranking member Collin Peterson of Minnesota told the Hagstrom Report that he hadn’t discussed the farm bill with her until last Tuesday evening. Peterson described Pelosi as surprised that Republicans accused her of being behind the Democrats opposition to the farm bill.
The House Ag Committee approved the bill on a party-line vote of 26-20, with all Democrats opposed. Pelosi had issued a statement earlier criticizing the farm bill.
However, Peterson said he’d told her they would talk about the bill when he had something to tell her, and that was the Tuesday before the markup. Peterson says Pelosi was not aware of the detailed politics in the committee Democrats’ opposition to the bill. Peterson says he’s seen evidence that the retiring Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, is behind the changes to the nutrition title, which attach work requirements to the food stamp program. He says Ryan sees it as his welfare reform bill before he leaves Congress. Peterson says, “The Speaker put this in the bill because he couldn’t get anything else done with welfare reform.”
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.