Sen. Mitch McConnell missed most of the Senate Agriculture Committee hearing Wednesday, but he entered the meeting at the moment he was needed — to cast the deciding vote that advanced the farm bill.
The Kentucky Republican’s only contribution was an “aye,” as staff and other senators watched closely to make sure he voted so. He then left the room.
In August, McConnell’s absence meant the panel could complete work on the bill since he was voting by proxy, a process that allows another senator essentially to vote on his behalf. Back then, the committee’s Republicans couldn’t send the farm bill to the Senate floor because proxy votes can’t be the deciding vote for a bill to advance.
On Wednesday, the other action at the hearing underscored how the fate of the farm bill remains uncertain, along with the future of its programs and funding that are essential to the agricultural industry.
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Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) tried at the start of the meeting to offer an amendment with language intended to reverse Proposition 12, a California law that requires minimum space requirements for farm animals.
Committee Chair John Boozman said the deadline for introducing amendments had passed at a markup in August. “Everybody understood that we recessed so we could come back and then not have to start over,” Boozman said after the meeting. “All the titles were closed.”
Ernst, along with Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ray Lujan (D-New Mexico), objected to Boozman not allowing a vote on the amendment.
Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) suggested amendments could be addressed when the bill is on the Senate floor.
“It’s past time, we’ve got to get to the floor,” Hoeven said.
Senators from both sides of the aisle agreed that it was imperative to pass the farm bill quickly, and each side implored the other to come to an agreement.
“We can’t keep waiting,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) said. “America’s farmers are counting on this bill.”
Ranking member Amy Klobuchar said Democrats are remaining firm in their ask for a two-year extension of delaying a cost shift to states for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, arguing that states will be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars without a delay.
Majority Leader John Thune and Boozman say their current offer for a one-year delay in the farm bill is better than no delay at all.
“If this doesn’t go anywhere, states will pay 17 billion more,” Thune said. “I don’t understand the resistance from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.”
The bill needs 60 votes to clear a filibuster — a bar Republicans can’t hit on their own. Boozman said he has heard from some Senate Democrats outside the committee that they would support this version of the farm bill.
Fetterman seemed to signal some potential willingness to take the one-year extension, despite his vote against the bill’s passage. Fetterman said several Pennsylvania farm groups met with his office this week and stressed that the farm bill be passed quickly.
Fetterman didn’t answer questions from reporters after the meeting.
Klobuchar also mentioned cuts to some USDA conservation programs she would like to see reversed, and argued that has support within the Make America Healthy Again movement. Both the House and Senate versions of the farm bill have drawn ire from the MAHA crowd since April.
Congress will need to work quickly to get the bill through before provisions and funding in the current farm bill expire. Farmers are squeezed financially by tariffs, higher input prices — including major cost increases for diesel and fertilizer prices — and extreme weather and drought.
“If the window is going to close — that we are able to get this accomplished — then farmers don’t get help, and you don’t get any help to the states,” Boozman said.
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