On July 13, NSAC joined 45 national farm, commodity, financial, conservation, rural, religious, and research organizations to send a letter to the House leadership urging them to schedule floor consideration of the House Agriculture Committee’s version of the farm bill.

The current farm bill is set to expire September 30, 2012 and without a guarantee of floor time in the immediate future, the prospect of passing a bill in time is diminishing.  Understanding the urgency of the situation, this wide-ranging group of organizations crossed traditional interest lines and came together to voice their support for House consideration of the bill.

The letter and list of signing organizations can be read here.

The House Agriculture Committee passed their version of the farm bill in the wee hours of July 12.  Later the same day, House Speaker John Boehner indicated that no decisions have been made with respect to floor time for the farm bill, a signal the bill is in serious trouble at this point in time.  The letter today to the Speaker and to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is an attempt to turn this situation around.

NSAC, though not at all happy with the bill, nonetheless wants the process to continue under the normal process, with the opportunity for improving the bill on the House floor.  We have previously posted our review of House Committee markup, our overall analysis of the bill as approved in Committee, and our overview of the draft bill submitted to the Committee by the Chairman.

We have also posted a chart that details some of the farm bill funding decisions made so far by the Senate and the House on important programs that lie outside the major money programs and titles (food stamps, crop insurance, commodities, and conservation).  The majority of these programs have no funding in the future unless the new farm bill is passed and becomes law.