WASHINGTON — The House Agriculture Committee canceled tentative plans to draft a new farm bill after its top Democrat sought a commitment that the legislation will be considered by the full chamber, according to committee leaders.
“There’s going to be no markup in the foreseeable future without it,” Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota said Friday in an interview. Peterson had said the committee would meet on Feb. 27, and that “is off.”
The timing of a meetingof the committee, which may occur as lawmakers debate raising the federal debt ceiling, also comes into play, Chairman Frank Lucas, an Oklahoma Republican, said Friday in an interview. Lucas, who hasn’t confirmed a Feb. 27 meeting, had said a session could happen as early as late February.
U.S. agricultural law that governs food aid to poor families as well as crop subsidies to farmers this week was extended to Sept. 30 as part of the congressional tax and spending settlement. The law approved in 2008 lapsed lastyear, triggering rules dating to 1949 that would have pushed up milk prices.
Peterson sent letters Thursday to House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, both Republicans, saying that without a guarantee that farm-policy legislation would be debated on the House floor this year, Democrats won’t work on a bill, which will require bipartisan support to pass. Peterson said House Republican leaders “bottled up” the panel’s bill last year, keeping the measure off the House agenda.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 01/05/2013