Regulatory Watch

Light at the end of the tunnel for Farm Billl?

The House and Senate could agree on a version of the farm bill as early as January.

By Wayne Labs, Senior Contributing Technical Editor

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, says there is still a lot of work for lawyers to do, but it’s possible there could be a version of the Farm Bill the House and Senate could agree to sometime in January. In an early December interview on the radio program AgriTalk, an agriculture policy podcast, Lucas said that’s probably a best case scenario.

“This is a body that moves like a snail, the United States Congress, House and Senate,” Lucas said. “But sometimes, it’s amazing the light speed with which things can be accomplished if everyone agrees. We’re just not quite to that light speed position yet.”

Among the obstacles to final approval of a Farm Bill is food stamp spending. The Senate version of the bill cuts less than 0.5 percent from food stamp spending. However, the House version calls for a 5 percent reduction.

KEYWORDS: farms legislation

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Wayne Labs has more than 30 years of editorial experience in industrial automation. He served as senior technical editor for I&CS/Control Solutions magazine for 18 years where he covered software, control system hardware and sensors/transmitters. Labs ran his own consulting business and contributed feature articles to Electronic Design, Control, Control Design, Industrial Networking and Food Engineering magazines. Before joining Food Engineering, he served as a senior technical editor for Omega Engineering Inc. Labs also worked in wireless systems and served as a field engineer for GE’s Mobile Communications Division and as a systems engineer for Bucks County Emergency Services. In addition to writing technical feature articles, Wayne covers FE’s Engineering R&D section.