What Election Results Mean for Farm Bill
It’s time for your Southeast Regional Ag News. On the Ag Information Network, I’m Haylie Shipp.
Elections played out this week across states in America, many of those results could significantly impact agricultural policy over the next two years.
Michael Torrey is the founder and principal of the Torrey Advisory Group who spoke during an Agri-Pulse webinar on the election results. He says, regardless of who controls Congress, the tight margins in the House and Senate may mean it’ll be hard to see a lot of changes in the upcoming farm bill…
“One of the things to pay attention to, as least as far as the House of Representatives goes, is, are they going to try to pass a farm bill with Republican-only votes, which they've done during the last couple of farm bills, or are they going to try to reach across the aisle and pass a farm bill? And I would tend to believe that their starting point is going to try to be a pass Republican-only farm bill. What kind of farm bill are the Republicans going to need to get out of the House, and that would kind of stand in contrast to will it be kind of the same or will it be different? And if that is the path they choose, then we can see a bill coming out of the House that could be significantly different by just trying to get the votes as a way to get to conference.”
He also expects Senate leadership to work well together to craft a bill they can get to a conference committee. One of the biggest sticking points, he says is likely to be funding for the farm bill programs, especially if Republicans get control of the House.
