Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Farm bill negotiators say the end-of-the-year deadline and pressure from vulnerable farmers will yield a lame duck deal — though disagreements remain about spending more than $17 billion from the IRA.
Why it matters: Time is running short for Congress to pass the 10-year, $1.4 trillion bill that funds conservation efforts, food-assistance benefits and commodity programs.
- Lawmakers are hoping to reallocate the IRA funding into the farm bill baseline to keep it from expiring in 2031.
Flashback: In November 2023, Congress passed an extension of the 2018 farm bill until Sept. 30. Members of both parties said they'll likely have to extend it until the end of 2024, but they want to avoid another year of delay as farms face economic headwinds.
Friction point: How to spend the IRA's climate dollars has been one of the central disagreements.
- Republicans want to lift "climate guardrails" that restrict IRA funding to farming practices that are proved to either lower greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon.
- The limits exclude practices like water quality and conservation in drought-stricken areas, they say.
- "When you go out west, it's water, water, water," John Boozman, the top Republican on the Senate Ag Committee, told Daniel.
- "It's good for the ground, it's good for the climate — but it's not sequestering carbon. So you're leaving out many practices that have co-benefits" with climate change mitigation.
The other side: Democrats argue that although many conservation projects are good for the environment, they don't target climate change.
- The guardrails are "not as narrow as people like to characterize it," said Rep. Chellie Pingree. "It's been one of the fights that have held up Democratic support" for a House GOP proposal reported May 24 by the Agriculture Committee.
State of play: Debbie Stabenow, the Democratic chair of the Senate Ag Committee who has criticized the House GOP proposal as unworkable and unfunded, told Politico in August that the parties continue to make progress.
- Glenn "GT" Thompson, the House Ag Committee chairman, "has no red lines when it comes to the funding proposal," a House GOP committee aide said. If Stabenow has ideas of how to fund the bill, "the chairman is willing to consider it," the aide said.
Our thought bubble: Both parties appear set to use deadline pressure to reach a deal by the end of the year. Which side has leverage in the lame duck session hinges on who wins control of the Congress and the White House in November.
- "Everybody has a few reasons" to support the farm bill, Pingree said. "We don't know yet who would have the greatest advantage."
