Ranking Member David Scott emphasized the importance of passing a five-year reauthorization of the farm bill while also stressing the need for farmers and ranchers not to be hung out to dry without an extension of current farm bill programs.
House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member David Scott today called to extend the 2018 Farm Bill to offer certainty and support to farmers, ranchers, and foresters as extremism within the House Republican Conference hobbles legislative efforts.
“While we continue the bipartisan effort on the House Agriculture Committee to craft a new farm bill, the extremism and cynicism that has taken hold of the broader House Republican Conference makes a five-year farm bill reauthorization by the year's end increasingly unlikely. Therefore, I am calling on my colleagues to support a one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill.
“A one-year extension is the responsible thing to do. It allows our farmers, ranchers, and foresters to operate with an element of certainty while we continue working on a bipartisan five-year farm bill.
"Agriculture Committee Democrats remain committed to passing a strong, effective, and bipartisan farm bill as quickly as we can.
“However, we refuse to subject our Nation’s farmers, ranchers, foresters, and families to an artificially rushed and haphazard farm bill simply because House Republicans faced a leadership crisis and have created uncertainty regarding any bipartisan legislation being able to pass on the House Floor.”
