Caruso on track to exceed $100 million in campaign spending
Rep. Jason Crow (right), R-Bethany, speaks with members of the media before leaving his committee room to testify at a hearing about his amendment to an oil and gas budget bill to add $3.6 million to the Department of Interior Department’s “Wild and Scenic Rivers” program, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2019, in Washington. Rep. Crow on Wednesday called the state’s wild river protection programs “the gold standard” for protecting those streams and rivers. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
WASHINGTON (AP) — With a Republican congressional majority now in power in the House of Representatives, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to make sure Republicans “get what they’re looking for in the farm bill” and a House farm bill that Pelosi wants to fund would “protect small and family farms,” not big agribusinesses.
“We’re very careful about making sure there is enough money in the farm bill for rural America,” Pelosi said at an appearance with other Republicans before the congressional agriculture committee Thursday.
Republican leaders, Pelosi and her allies have said farm programs, like the one that was vetoed by Trump, must contain reforms that prioritize U.S. farmers and help farmers and ranchers compete with low-cost goods from overseas. Trump is now negotiating with Democrats, who have a 60-vote majority in the Senate, to rewrite the farm bill again along his strict, pro-growth lines.
The Republican farm bill, in particular, has received pushback from farm advocates and from the Environmental Protection Agency, which is trying to reduce pollution from U.S. agricultural chemicals.
The farm bill would have to be reauthorized before the end of the calendar year, giving lawmakers time to tweak its provisions while also planning for the 2018 midterm elections and trying to advance a broad farm policy agenda that addresses a multitude of issues.
The legislation might even look different if Trump wins a second term and Republicans are back in charge of the House, depending on how the GOP Senate fares in the Nov. 6 midterm elections.
The current House committee that writes the farm bill has been working on its version of the legislation, and Thursday
