Bipartisan Group of House Members Urges Leadership to Schedule Farm Bill Floor Time Next Week

In a July 20 letter to House leadership, a bipartisan group of 79 House Members asked House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer to bring that chamber's version of the Farm Bill to the House floor for full consideration before the month-long August recess, which begins at the end of next week. Stressing that the "message from our constituents and rural America is clear: we need a farm bill now," the co-signers asked "that you make time on the floor of the House to consider this legislation, so that it can be debated, conferenced, and ultimately passed into law, before the current bill expires."

The House Agriculture Committee passed HR 6083, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (commonly known as the "Farm Bill") on July 12 by a healthy and bipartisan 24-vote margin. However, since then Republican House leaders, who view the bill as too divisive to bring to the floor before the November general election, have been reticent to schedule floor time for the bill.