By Clint Thompson
The time is now for legislative leaders to strike a deal on the next farm bill. The House has already released its version. The Senate recently released its draft.
The window is open for this important piece of legislation to get passed, says Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council and co-chair of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA).
“I think both chairmen, they’re dealing with the things that they can control, and producing a good bill in their committees and having that reported out of the committee to their respective floors, those are things that they can control,” Quarles said.
“After that, you get into a lot of big politics, but in an election year, there’s a window here where it’s beneficial for both sides to get a farm bill to the president’s desk and get it signed. And I’m cautiously optimistic that we really are, we have a window here that we haven’t had in the past few years. They’re doing everything they can to take advantage of it.”
Bipartisan Support
Bipartisan support remains vital to the farm bill’s passage. Both republicans and democrats need to be on board with the farm bill or it won’t have a legislative leg to stand on.
“The math doesn’t work if it’s not a bipartisan bill. And I think there’s going to be some pretty high level negotiations that take place that hopefully will generate that broad support,” Quarles said. “That’s just absolutely necessary in order to move the process forward.”
Quarles believes that Senate discussions are underway and a markup should be in place before the August recess. They’ll mark the bill up and report to the Senate floor before the election season.
“I do think it may be action before the election, it may be action in a lame duck, but I really feel like there’s an opportunity here to get a farm bill done before the year is out,” Quarles said.
SCFBA
The SCFBA is co-chaired by Cathy Burns, CEO of the International Fresh Produce Association; Mike Joyner, President of the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association; Dave Puglia, President and CEO of Western Growers; and Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council.