The Farm Bill is up for renewal every five years, setting policies on agriculture, conservation, nutrition and food assistance programs. Lawmakers are up against a deadline to pass the 2023 Farm Bill before it's set to expire at the end of this month.
Congress has been late to pass the farm bill before, most recently with the 2018 Farm Bill, signed into law December 20, 2018, by President Donald Trump three months after its September 30 expiration.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn "GT" Thompson (R-PA) said his goal in passing the 2023 Farm Bill is it passed in a bipartisan, bicameral way on time and highly effective. But he acknowledges there's a lot to be done in the U.S. House of Representatives this month, prior to the bill's expiration at the end of the month.
"It's an immense piece of legislation, $1.51 trillion over ten years," Thompson said. "Many of the programs will not expire. Many of them are tied to the harvest season, to the calendar year. There's a fair amount that is mandatory spending such as Nutrition title —that those actually do not expire. My goal when it comes to timeliness on time is to avoid any disruption in these significant programs going forward."
As for when the bill might be passed? Thompson said the U.S. House will need a full week on the House Floor.
"Whenever we find out when that week is, we'll back up probably, 10 to 14 days and that's when we'll do the markup for the committee and release the language another 10 to 14 days before that," Thompson said. "The whole sequence will depend on when we get that week from leadership that we can do the markup on the floor."
Central New York Rep. Brandon Williams (R-Sennett) said he believes they are well on their way to passing a bipartisan, bicameral bill to support the needs of farmers.
"The farm bill provides a lot of different aspects from the federal perspective for programs that are important to farmers," Williams said. "Getting that done is absolutely critical."
