Conaway: Negotiating Farm Bill This Year ‘The Right Thing To Do’

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway says negotiating a new farm bill this year will bring certainty for agriculture.  Following his address to the Commodity Classic Friday, the Texas Republican said negotiating a new farm bill this year is a priority.

“I can’t one person who says ‘nah, I really like the drama of exploration, I like the drama of a short-term extension, I like the drama of permanent law coming back’, so it’s the right thing to do.  It’s the right thing for a lot of reasons, eliminating the uncertainty of all of that, putting together a five year plan, that bankers and producers and others can look at.”

Conaway added the next farm bill will not be as complicated as 2014.

“We’re talking about dairy, and ARC and PLC, fine-tuning those, seeing how they worked or didn’t work, obviously the stacks is the one thing that we’ll jettison, and we’ll try to get cotton back into Title I in some form or another, in all likelihood it’ll be seed versus lint.”

Both the House and Senate agriculture committees have held farm bill related hearings already this year. The current farm bill expires at the end of 2018.

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