To understand how far this Congress will go to kick the proverbial can down the road, consider the farm bill — yes, the
farm bill.
In
the midst of a severe drought, the House Republican leaders are
proposing to walk away from farm states and decades of precedent by not
calling up the new five-year plan before the current law expires Sept.
30.
Whatever its flaws, the bill promises $35 billion in
10-year savings from exactly the type of mandatory spending that
Congress promised to tackle in last summer’s debt accord. But rather
than disrupt its political messaging, the GOP would put it all at risk
by delaying action until after the
November elections.
There’s little institutional memory left in the Capitol — or
perspective on the accumulation of cans rolling down the road these
days. But the farm bill delay is new ground for any Congress.
Never before in modern times has a farm bill reported from the
House Agriculture Committee
been so blocked. POLITICO looked back at 50 years of farm bills and
found nothing like this. There have been long debates, often torturous
negotiations with the Senate and a famous meltdown in 1995 when the
House Agriculture Committee couldn’t produce a bill. But no House farm
bill, once out of committee, has been kept off the floor while its
deadline passes.
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