December 18, 2013
www.gfb.org
Vol. 31 No. 51
HOUSE PASSES 2008 FARM BILL EXTENSION The U.S. House passed an extension on the 2008 farm bill on Dec. 12 by a voice vote. The extension, which is backdated to Sept. 30, was introduced by Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), one of the key negotiators in the farm bill conference committee. Lucas said that farmers need the certainty the extension provides while the conference committee puts the finishing touches on a new five-year farm bill. The measure addresses pricing concerns for commodities subject to public law from 1930s and 1940s, which would take effect should the 2008 farm bill lapse. The extension, Lucas said, would “allow us to finish our work without the threat that permanent law will be implemented. Having this option on the table is the responsible thing to do in light of our tight deadline.” While most provisions in the 2008 farm bill expired Sept. 30, the dairy price supports in the 2008 farm bill expire Dec. 31. “We have made great progress on the farm bill and continue to have productive meetings,” Lucas said in a statement. “There are still some outstanding issues that we are addressing. I am confident we’ll work through them and finish a farm bill in January.” Georgia Rep. Austin Scott (R-8th District), one of two conference committee members from Georgia, said that the extension was requested to allow the conference committee time to wait for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to score an agreement in the conference committee on the size of cuts to the bill’s food stamp provisions. “While there’s a framework to an agreement, the CBO scores had not been completed,” said Scott, who was in Macon on Dec. 16 for a town hall meeting. “We did a 30-day continuation and hopefully when we get back in January the CBO will have those scores, and we’ll actually be able to finish putting the final language in there. We’ll then have public votes on some of the issues [like] food stamps and some of the other things in there.” Like Lucas, Scott said he was hopeful the committee would complete its work on the farm bill by the end of the month and have the bill submitted to the House and Senate for votes in early January. The Senate passed its version of the farm bill on June 10. The House voted down a farm bill on June 20 after conflicts arose over funding levels in the bill’s nutrition title. The House passed a farm bill with no nutrition provisions on July 11 and a stand-alone nutrition bill on Sept. 19. The two House bills were combined on Sept. 28 and the conference committee convened in October.