The farm bill is back on the table and could get a final vote in the House this week after Republican leaders initially suggested it would end up on the back burner.
House votes on amendments to the must-pass farm bill are slated to happen Thursday, with a full House vote expected soon after that. That’s a fast reversal of what House leaders had planned earlier Wednesday when the bill was likely to be shoved back to the Rules Committee over disagreements about pesticides and a specific type of gasoline, E15.
“We want to get a farm bill, too,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said earlier Wednesday. “So we’re gonna keep working on those areas where members have very big differences.”
The farm bill went through the Rules Committee, but Republicans outside the committee grew frustrated when their amendments were voted down by the majority after being introduced by the committee’s Democrats.
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“If we aren’t able to have amendments that are even heard and have an up-and-down vote, then that’s not going to fly with us,” Rep. Lauren Boebert said after the series of votes on Wednesday. “The amendment process is how we give voice for our districts.”
Some Republicans and Democrats oppose a provision in the farm bill that would protect companies that produce glyphosate, a widely used pesticide. The chemical has been under scrutiny by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and members of the “Make America Health Again” movement.
The agricultural industry supports the provision, and the committee’s chair, Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, has defended its inclusion in the farm bill.
“This is just a labeling bill,” Thompson said in an interview with farm broadcasters on Wednesday. “This is about making sure that we put science before emotion.”
This story has been updated to reflect that the House plans to vote on amendments on the farm bill on Wednesday.
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