A LAST-DITCH PUSH: Industry stakeholders are making last pushes for their farm bill priorities ahead of a volatile campaign season, but are bracing for another extension. A Sept. 30 farm bill deadline is fast approaching, and lawmakers need to decide on an extension plan before the end of the calendar year, when key programs in the 2018 farm bill expire. Congress will only be in Washington for only a few weeks between now and the November election. The election’s impact: While lawmakers are at that impasse, industry leaders visiting the Hill have pushed for any movement on a farm bill. Some industry representatives have expressed concerns about how November election results might tilt what the final farm bill looks like, especially in light of recent campaign drama within the Democratic party. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, a vulnerable Illinois Democrat on the House Ag Committee who voted against the House GOP-led farm bill in May, said she’s been meeting with ag stakeholders who are still hopeful for getting a bipartisan bill done. She told us discussions of how the election’s outcome could affect the farm bill and other policy talks are “hypotheticals.” “I think what we need to be doing is working with reality,” she told MA last week. “I'm frustrated by Republican leadership that we've not seen any action on the floor even after that markup, no real conversations from what I understand between the House and the Senate on getting to a conference bipartisan farm bill. Those are things that can happen regardless of any election results.” NCGA’s ELEVENTH-HOUR PUSH: The National Corn Growers Association is meeting with Hill staff this week to highlight their farm bill and other priorities in a last push before the election and farm bill deadline. NCGA President Harold Wolle told MA in an interview that growers are prepared for another extension of the 2018 farm bill, but hopeful for updates that would support the industry as it grapples with high input costs and weather disaster recovery, like his own farm in Minnesota that was hit by recent flooding. “While we can live with an extension, we are certainly advocating and want to see the improvements that are possible with a new bipartisan, full five year reauthorization,” Wolle said. Corn producers are frustrated by the deadlock, Wolle said, but will continue to plan ahead under the provisions in the 2018 farm bill. Wolle and other NCGA members will also visit key agency representatives to discuss future movement on sustainable aviation fuel tax credits, which are top of mind for the corn industry. Still in a deadlock: House Ag Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) told MA last week he’s still working to find time on the House schedule for a full vote on his bill, which advanced out of committee in May. He said a “big holdup” is the wait for updated Congressional Budget Office projections for the package, as farm bill funding has become one of the biggest contentions. In the higher chamber: Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has been focused on other priorities in her committee, including circulating text of her cryptocurrency regulation bill soon, even as she faces doubts from ranking member John Boozman (R-Ark.), our Eleanor Mueller reported. Though committee negotiators told MA they’ve been meeting about the farm bill in recent weeks, they’ve planned no next steps.
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