The Senate Agriculture Committee’s attempt to advance a new farm bill hit a roadblock Thursday, but the legislation is far from dead. The committee’s final vote to advance the farm bill failed 10-11, largely along party lines, with disagreements over SNAP cost-sharing provisions preventing the legislation from moving forward before the August recess.
“They got really close. There were a lot of things that the Democrats and the Republicans agreed on. The one issue that’s really holding them back is the SNAP program,” says Callie Eideberg, principal at the Vogel Group and an agriculture policy expert.
The sticking point is how quickly states would be required to take on a larger share of SNAP administrative costs. Republicans negotiated a one-year delay with the White House, while Democrats pushed for two years. Eideberg says the issue is complicated because the financial impact will vary widely from state to state.
“Some states will not see an increase in costs, and some states will see huge increases in costs,” she says.
Democrats rejected the one-year compromise, leaving the committee without enough support to advance the bill.
But while the farm bill stalled, senators did approve several key amendments.
MCOOL advances with bipartisan support
One of the biggest developments came on beef policy.
The committee voted 17-6 to add an amendment from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., that would establish a pathway to reinstate mandatory country-of-origin labeling, or MCOOL, for beef.
Every Democrat on the committee supported the amendment, along with six Republicans: Thune, Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, John Hoeven of North Dakota and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi.
The amendment incorporates the American Beef Labeling Act into the Senate farm bill, but it does not immediately reinstate the previous MCOOL system. Instead, it directs the U.S. Trade Representative, working with USDA, to determine within 180 days how mandatory beef labeling could be implemented in a way that complies with World Trade Organization rules.
That provision could become a major point of contention if the Senate bill eventually meets the House version of the farm bill, which does not contain mandatory MCOOL. For some history, MCOOL was first repealed in 2015 after a long-running trade dispute with Canada and Mexico over whether the U.S. labeling requirements discriminated against imported livestock. But it was originally put into place through the 2002 Farm Bill.
Other Amendments Fall
The committee also approved a 34-amendment manager’s package.
But most other amendments failed, including proposals to restore roughly $2 billion in temporary cuts to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, and proposals requiring additional audits of farm program payments. Democrats also unsuccessfully pushed for a longer delay in the SNAP cost-sharing requirements.
The markup ultimately included 206 potential amendments, although Democrats introduced 13.
The Save Our Bacon Act remains a major House-Senate difference. It is in the House farm bill but was left out of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s version and did not get added during Thursday’s markup.
August Becomes a Critical Month
The Senate farm bill debate is far from over. Even though lawmakers are leaving Washington for the August recess, Eideberg says the farm bill negotiations will continue.
“What happens now is the Senate just left for its August recess. They’re going to be gone until September. But we know that members are still going to be engaged as well as their staff,” she says.
That work will include what is known as “pre-conferencing,” where House and Senate agriculture committee members and staff work through the differences between the two versions of the farm bill.
“They’re going to spend all of August pre-conferencing these two bills and try to get to an agreement so that they can then move a bill to the floor and get final passage this year and in this Congress,” Eideberg says.
And she sees one agricultural provision in the Senate bill as a potential bipartisan bargaining chip: E15.
“One thing that’s in the Senate version that really caught my eye, and I think this is very much a sweetener, is the E-15 proposal,” Eideberg says. “That is something that we know a lot of Democrats wanted and a lot of Republicans wanted.”
She says that provision could help bring more lawmakers to the negotiating table as Congress looks for a path forward.
McConnell’s Return Could Change the Committee Math
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was absent from the final committee vote. His potential return after the August recess could make it easier for Republicans to move the bill out of committee.
But Eideberg says that would only solve part of the problem.
“McConnell coming back to the Senate is absolutely going to be moving that bill forward out of committee, but they still have to come to agreement on the SNAP provisions, or they will never pass this bill on floor,” she says.
That’s because even if Republicans can get the farm bill through committee, they still need Democratic support to reach the 60 votes required to advance legislation in the full Senate.
For now, the farm bill remains in committee, with Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., recessing the markup rather than formally adjourning it. That keeps the legislation, and the amendments already approved, including MCOOL, alive for a potential September vote.
Eideberg says the clock is now becoming a major factor.
“I think they are going to be working extremely hard,” she says, adding that lawmakers have a strong incentive to reach an agreement and get a farm bill across the finish line before the end of the year.
The biggest hurdle remains the same one that stopped the bill Thursday: finding a compromise on how long states should have before taking on additional SNAP costs.
