The group consists of five Republicans and four Democrats
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
U.S. lawmakers are one step closer to passing a new Farm Bill before the current one expires at the end of September.
Yesterday, the Senate appointed nine members the conferees for the 2018 Farm Bill debate. The Senators will work with 47 House members to come up with a unified bill.
Five Republicans and four Democrats will make up the Senate panel.
The Republican representatives are Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate ag committee, Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader, John Boozman from Arkansas, John Hoeven from North Dakota and Iowa’s Joni Ernst.
Senate Agriculture Committee photo
The Democrat contingent consists of Debbie Stabenow, ranking member of the Senate ag committee, Patrick Leahy from Vermont, Sherrod Brown from Ohio and Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota.
Farm groups urge legislators to work together and send a bill to President Trump as soon as possible.
The National Association of Wheat Growers is asking members to “put politics aside and growers first by completing one bill that works for all of agriculture,” the organization said in a statement yesterday.
“The Farm Bill is important to farm families and rural communities in Kentucky and across the country,” Mark Haney, president of the Kentucky Farm Bureau, said in a statement today. “It is critical to the agriculture industry to get this piece of legislation finalized and on the President’s desk.”
Fellow Senators are confident their colleagues will send a bill to President’s Trump before the expiry date.
“Right now, we’re on schedule to make the Sept. 30 deadline,” John Thune, a Senator from South Dakota, told the Capital Journal yesterday. “I feel good about the bill that the Senate has put together. It’s a pro-farmer, pro-agriculture bill that protects the people and the industry that is the backbone of our country.”
Congress failed to pass the 2008 Farm Bill before its expiration date.