Ag Policy Blog

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway, R-Texas, announced Wednesday that the committee’s website has a new section on the farm bill and released a video on the farm bill.

In a statement accompanying the farm-bill site launch, Conaway repeated previous statements that he is committed to finishing the bill before the 2014 farm bill expires on September 30.

“I’m committed to completing a farm bill on time. We’ve spent the past three years preparing — holding 113 hearings and six listening sessions around the country,” Conaway said. “We recognize what’s at stake. We’re working on getting the policy right and will use this site as a resource as we advance the next farm bill.”

Conaway also told Politico that he has sent a draft of the bill to the Congressional Budget Office for an initial score. In the interview, he said he hopes to mark up the bill in the first quarter of 2018 with a vote on the House floor a week later. Conaway and his staff have said before that they do not want the bill to be voted in committee and then subject to lengthy criticism before a House vote.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., has said he also plans to move on the farm bill early in 2018, but Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Kan., said last week he considers the committee to be three months behind in writing the bill. House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said last week that some Senate Democrats want to wait until 2019 on the theory that they will be in the majority, but Peterson said he disagrees with that viewpoint.

The House Agriculture Committee farm bill page: https://agriculture.house.gov/…

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