House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member David Scott today criticized Speaker Mike Johnson for abandoning the appropriations process and dismissing the House for the August recess ahead of schedule. 

“By sending the House into recess early, Speaker Johnson once again proves that his dysfunctional Republican Leadership is the biggest obstacle to passing a truly bipartisan farm bill.

“Chairman Thompson wanted the House to pass the farm bill in September once the appropriations process was completed.  The inability to finish the appropriations process means September will be taken up trying to keep the government open and casts even more doubt on the Committee’s bill reaching the House Floor. 

“The farm bill will be expiring again soon, and farmers are depending on us to provide an improved safety net before the year is out,” said Ranking Member David Scott.

On Monday, a coalition of 500 farm, commodity, conservation, and other groups making up the farm bill coalition urged Congress to “craft a farm bill that can pass’ into law this year. They expressed “concerns that it may not be logistically or politically feasible to advance a new farm bill early in the next Congress.”

On Tuesday, witnesses at a full Committee hearing expressed anxiety over delays and the need to pass a farm bill now.

Ranking Member Scott continued, “We have precious few legislative days left in the year to pass a farm bill. The failure of the House Republican Leadership to provide time and resources for a farm bill is a slap in the face to rural America, our farmers, and the families they feed. Farmers need results and Republicans are failing to deliver.”