The chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee said Wednesday that the panel will take up the farm bill late next week, despite what has been a partisan deadlock on the measure.
Sen. John Boozman (R-Arkansas) told reporters he is working closely with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), the committee’s ranking member, “to see if we can get a path forward” and that details are still being worked out.
“We’ve got a good bill. I think lots of our members and both sides want to support it,” Boozman said.
But Klobuchar, in an email response from her office, said there is still plenty of ground to cover.
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“We’re continuing to have productive negotiations, but there is a lot of work left to do. Senate Ag Democrats have been clear that a Farm Bill must meet the needs of both farmers and families across America,” Klobuchar said in a statement.
Boozman did not go into details of the negotiations, but any deal is likely to include some compromise on when states must start sharing costs under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a change Republicans put in a previous law.
Democrats have asked for a two-year delay in the cost shift for states with error rates above 6%, with one calling the request a “deal-maker and a deal-breaker.” Republicans have preferred to leave the changes made to SNAP from the “one big, beautiful bill” last year.
Boozman also said he is still unsure whether Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) will be present for the committee’s markup. McConnell has been recovering from an illness and unable to participate, leaving the committee tied with 11 Republican and Democratic members each.
“We’re going to go forward regardless. I’ve always said for a farm to be successful it needs to be bipartisan,” Boozman said. “So that’s what we’re working on getting done.”
Even if Republicans can advance the farm bill from the committee without Democratic support, it does not appear to have enough support to overcome the 60-vote threshold needed to advance on the Senate floor, since Democrats say they would not support the bill without a SNAP cost-shift delay.
A markup, which would be the first time the committee has voted on a farm bill since 2018, is tied to a hard deadline.The current extension of the 2018 farm bill runs through Sept. 30. The House passed its version of the farm bill on April 30.
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