A new farm bill will face many hurdles and an extension remains a possibility. If the legislation goes into 2019, Cook Political Report House Editor David Wasserman says politics could be the reason. “There will be differences between the House and Senate. There will be differences regionally. From the last few farm bills, a number of stakeholders have learned to wait it out for the best deal. These factors make the 2018 Farm Bill difficult.”
Wasserman sees the current farm bill discussion as a familiar dance. “In the farm bill debates we’ve seen, Republicans have proposals to update SNAP. Democrats have resisted. There is some horse trading going on. The parties come together and the leadership of the committees normally save the day. I think we’ll see a lot hashed out with neither party getting everything they want in the coming months or year.”
RRFN’s Farm Bill Focus is sponsored, in part, by the Northern Canola Growers Association and the North Dakota Soybean Growers Association.