Following approval of the 2012 Farm Bill by the Senate Agriculture Committee, a number of agriculture, conservation, nutrition, and rural development organizations—including NASDA—pressed Senate leadership this week to schedule floor time for the legislation. The Senate Agriculture also released a summary of the committee-passed Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012.
Meanwhile, the House Agriculture Committee continues its series of Farm Bill hearings. To date, the various agriculture subcommittees have held hearings on Rural Development, Dairy, Conservation, and Specialty Crops and Nutrition. With hearings scheduled on the Credit and Commodity portions of the Farm Bill in the next several weeks. The House Budget Committee approved this week, by party line vote, legislation that would circumvent pending automatic defense spending cuts by reducing domestic spending by more than $260 billion over the next ten years, with $33.2 billion of that figure coming from reductions to nutrition programs passed by the House Agriculture Committee last month. While the legislation is expected to pass the House later this week, the bill is certain to die in the Senate.