'Disastrous effect': Lack of farm aid could derail Johnson spending bill

16 December 2024

With the United States' federal government facing another shutdown threat and a Saturday, December 21 deadline drawing closer and closer, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) is pushing a three-month stopgap spending bill. Other House Republicans, however, have called for a bill that would fund the government until the end of the next fiscal year.

One thing the three-month stopgap bill lacks, so far, is farm aid, and according to Politico reporter Meredith Lee Hill, that could be a problem for Johnson in farming areas.

"The threat of a new wave of GOP defections among farm-district Republicans presents a fresh challenge for Johnson, who is already navigating a narrow majority and opposition from his own right flank as he tries to fund the government before a shutdown December 21," Hill explains in an article published on December 16. "And it will likely force the speaker to find more Democratic votes before the current funding runs out Friday, (December 20)."

According to Hill, Johnson's GOP allies have "been exploring other options to add the farm aid into the stopgap," while House Democrats have been "demanding their own additions in return."

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson (R-Pennsylvania) has said that he won't support any spending bill that lacks farm aid. And Rep. John Duarte (R-California) is also being outspoken on that issue.

Duarte told Politico, "U.S. farmers across our nation are simply at the end of their debt and equity resources."

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (D-Wisconsin) is pointing the finger at Democrats, telling Politico, "The fact that the Democratic-controlled Senate was two years late on producing their text for the farm bill is shameful. If we do not get farm aid done before January 1, it will have a disastrous effect on American agriculture."

But outgoing Sen. Debbie Stabenow (R-Michigan), who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, believes that Republicans — not Democrats — are the ones who have been dropping the ball with farm aid.

Stabenow told Politico, "The coming onslaught of farm foreclosures and retirement sales is on the Republican Leadership."

Read Politico's full article at this link.

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