Farm Bill Hopes Waning

A Senior GOP Ag Senator says his optimism for a 2018 farm bill is fading, after months of delay in starting to write a bill in committee.

Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s less hopeful now than a few months ago, that the Senate will pass a 2018 farm bill soon…But, that was before the Senate got mired in a marathon tax bill fight.

Grassley says a new farm bill needs to be done in the first half of next year so producers can plan for the 2019 crop year. But, top House Ag Democrat Collin Peterson thinks some Senate Democrats want to drag their feet, hoping for a majority in 2019.

And Grassley says a further problem, in a fight over biofuel use, as Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s ‘hold’ on Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey’s nomination for a top USDA post.

Grassley predicts a reconciled House-Senate tax bill will be passed by the House next Tuesday, and out of the Senate and on the president’s desk by the end of next week, in time for Christmas.