The Senate Agriculture Panel on Wednesday passed the massive farm bill by a 20-1 vote and overcame an essay to tighten subsidy payments to farmers.
The draft farm bill, officially remembered as the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, contains more than 1,000 episodes and covers everything from farm subsidies and food stamps to switch and rural development policy. Farmer assistance includes commodity payment programs, as doubtlessly as subsidized crop insurance.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, cast the particular “no” vote, because his amendment to limit subsidy payments wasn’t added to the tendered bill. Grassley wants to tighten the federal payments to focus on family-size delegate operations.
Earlier in the panel’s meeting, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., vowed that the full Senate will vote on the entire 2018 steading bill before the July 4 recess. McConnell also said he’s “optimistic the House will get to theirs, but it will probably look a little peculiar than ours.”
The House failed to pass a farm bill final month due to an immigration squabble among Republicans.
A House vote in time “would give us a chance to get into conference and actually make a law here,” estimated McConnell.
McConnell also made a case during Wednesday’s Senate Agriculture Council meeting for supporting his hemp legalization legislation. McConnell said grangers in his home state of Kentucky and across the nation are interested in an industrial hemp exertion.
According to McConnell, hemp farming in Kentucky can help replace some of the gross income from falling tobacco demand.
“I know there are farming communities all remaining the country who are interested in this,” said McConnell. “Mine are particularly keen oned in it, and the reason for that is — as all of you know — our No. 1 cash crop used to be something that’s in point of fact not good for you: tobacco. And that has declined significantly, as it should, given the communal health concerns.
In particular, the GOP leader said, “Younger farmers in my royal are particularly interested in going in this direction. We have a lot of people in my glory who are extremely enthusiastic about the possibilities. As we all know, hemp is very separate.”
As a plant, hemp looks like marijuana, but it contains low levels of THC, the stupefacient that gets pot users high. Industrial hemp is used to pilfer everything from apparel, foods and pharmaceuticals to body care offerings, car dashboards and building materials.
“It’s time to figure it out and see where this sell will take us,” he said. “I think it’s an important new development in American agriculture. There’s great deal of hemp around; it’s just coming from other countries. Why in the over the moon marvellous would we want a lot of it to not come from here?”
Still, McConnell averred he isn’t sure whether industrial hemp will ever be as big as tobacco was in Kentucky. “We without exception had diverse agriculture, but there was nothing as big as tobacco,” he said. “So all the people in bucolic Kentucky who sort of grew up with tobacco, are hoping this [hemp] wish be really something.”
McConnell’s hemp legislation, known as the Hemp Agriculture Act, is included in the Senate’s farm bill and would remove industrial hemp from the tilt of controlled substances under federal law.
“I think it’s time we took this take care,” said McConnell. “I think everybody has figured it out that this isn’t the other imprint.”
McConnell said agriculture has long been a “central part” of his shape’s economy and pride, from poultry to beef and soybeans, corn and tobacco. He swayed there are more than 75,000 farms in Kentucky providing “problems and a great way of life for the people that I represent.”
The farm bill is regularly renewed every five years, and the current version is set to expire Sept. 30. The sometime farm bill, from 2014, relaxed hemp laws and appropriated farmers in a handful of states, including Kentucky, to grow the crop as take a part in of research projects.
“I’m proud to support this bill before us today,” McConnell told the Agriculture Commission. “It can deliver much-needed certainty for farmers. One way it does so is by protecting crop cover, a crucial tool for our farmers who face challenges such as natural adversities or inclement weather that can wipe out an entire operation.”
McConnell also popular that the draft 2018 farm bill includes funds for be unbelievable infrastructure investments as well as reforms to support protection of forest dismounts. He also said it boosts rural communities by expanding high-speed Internet and providing breads to fight the opioid epidemic.
“By any measure, this is a good bill with common-sense schemes to help families and communities,” he said.
The Senate Agriculture Committee rated more than 60 amendments to the farm bill. Several senators make reference to Wednesday said the farm bill was needed due to farmers struggling, outstandingly dairy producers.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., spoke about how dairy smallholders in her state are tragically resorting to suicide due to financial distress. “Giving them redress now is crucial,” she said.
The Senate version of the 2018 farm bill at ones desire add new coverage for the federal government’s dairy margin protection program and rename it “Dairy Peril Coverage.” There also would be about $100 million enlarged to the dairy assistance program, which is on top of the $1.1 billion in subsidies approved in February as instances partly of a budget bill.
The lion’s share of the farm bill’s funding is committed to programs such as food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Absolute benefits paid out last year by SNAP exceeded $63 billion and went to uncountable than 42 million participants.
The GOP-backed House farm invoice that failed last month sought tougher work requisites for SNAP participants. The White House also has been pushing for stouter work requirements for public assistance programs that target low-income Americans, take ining food stamps and public housing assistance.