House appoints conferees for Farm Bill conference with Senate

From ANLA Knowledge Center:

It’s been a long and winding road spanning almost a year-and-a-half, two congresses, two Senate Bills and a historic collapse on the floor of the House (see “House Fails to Pass Farm Bill”) but a Farm Bill will finally be conferenced between the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. Last Friday (October 12th) the House leadership announced who will represent their chamber in the upcoming talks that will attempt to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the Farm Bill.

While moving to conference is a significant and necessary step toward final passage of a bill, there are significant differences that will challenge the conferees in bringing a package together. The most significant among the challenges are the $36 Billion difference in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as “food stamps”, and the disjointed allocation timelines for the agriculture provisions and the nutrition programs. The House version cuts approximately $40 Billion from SNAP, which is ten-times the cuts proposed in the Senate version. In addition, the approach embraced by House Republicans would permanently separate the agriculture provisions of the Farm Bill from SNAP by placing them on five-year and three-year allocation cycles, respectively. Separating the components is broadly opposed in the Senate and would break the four decade-long alignment that brought urban and rural representatives together in support of a Farm Bill every five-years, or so.

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To see a complete list of congressional conferees for the Farm Bill click below:
U.S Senate Conferees