Thompson wants September farm bill
By Jerry Hagstrom, The Hagstrom Report

The Hagstrom Report |
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., said Wednesday he hopes that the committee can vote on the farm bill when Congress returns in September after the August recess and that he has more trips planned to listen to the concerns of farmers around the country. At a breakfast for reporters with House Agriculture Forestry Subcommittee Chairman Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., Thompson said he believes the committee is “at first base on the farm bill.” He said the analogy is appropriate because the congressional baseball game is tonight. Thompson said he has a “goal” of committee consideration of the bill shortly after the House returns from the August recess on Sept. 12, and plans for floor consideration shortly thereafter. The 2018 farm bill expires Sept. 30. Thompson said he wants to pass a bicameral, bipartisan bill “on time.” But he added, “The clock is ticking pretty rapidly.” Thompson said he rejects a statement by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that a one-year extension will be needed. “I respectfully disagree,” Thompson said. “We can get our job done.” But he added, “We need to put fingers to keyboards.” Thompson did not say when he would release a draft of the bill. Asked by a reporter for their views on “dissidents” in the ranks of the House Republicans who stopped the consideration of legislation on the House floor last week, Thompson said he likes the term “dissidents” because “conservatives” refers to a broader group of Republicans. Both Thompson and LaMalfa said they don’t think the dissidents will stop the farm bill, and they praised the leadership of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Thompson also said he wants to be remembered for convincing the House speaker to attend a farm bill listening session in Tulare, Calif., and “sit quietly” for two and a half hours while listening to the farmers. Thompson said he will travel to New Mexico on Friday to meet with cattlemen and has another trip to Tennessee planned. He also said he will hold listening sessions in Connecticut with Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., and in Maine with Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine. LaMalfa said he hopes to use his position as chair of the Forestry Subcommittee to achieve more effective, efficient forest management. Although the Forest Service gets its appropriations through the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, and the House Natural Resources Committee plays a role in forestry policy, LaMalfa said the Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over the U.S. Forest Service because it is part of the Agriculture Department. Noting the damage caused by forest fires in recent years, LaMalfa said he is “tired of slow-moving agencies” coming to the Agriculture and Natural Resources committees and “saying we are working on this and that.” San Francisco Bay Area journalists raised the specter of clear-cutting the forests, LaMalfa said, but forest management involves much more than that. Forest lands are “overgrown and undermanaged” due to 50 years of lawsuits and a lack of action by federal agencies. The result, he said, is that the forests, which are “a public asset,” are destroyed, animal habitat is destroyed and erosion precedes landslides and mudslides. But both Thompson and LaMalfa said there need to be larger clearings of trees near roads and power lines. LaMalfa also said there should not be wooden guardrails on forest roads and noted that some people who were killed in the Paradise fire were caught on blocked roads. Thompson said that due to fires, forests have become carbon emitters but that with “the right policy” they are the best way to store carbon. Asked about the National Environmental Policy Act, LaMalfa said the jurisdiction is shared by many committees and that the Agriculture Committee role is “advisory.” LaMalfa said he is concerned that the Forest Service is not using its authority to make decisions based on “a landscape perspective” rather than acre by acre. When a forest in the Tahoe Basin was thinned, a forest fire stopped at the edge because forest firefighters could work more easily there, he said. Thompson said the debt ceiling bill made “significant changes” in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program but that “there is still more to be done” on SNAP in the farm bill. Thompson said he is bothered that the waivers from worker requirements for the able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) between 18 and 54 who are homeless, veterans or exiting foster care will not get the education and training that is available to ABAWDs who must comply with work requirements. “Maybe we should make them eligible,” Thompson said. Of the Biden administration’s position on ABAWD waivers, Thompson said it was “a hill they were willing to die on.” On the question of what kinds of food SNAP beneficiaries should be allowed to buy, Thompson noted that the federal government does not have a definition. He noted that a researcher told him that when he has a bad day, he may eat comfort food that may not be considered nutritious but that improves his mental health. Thompson said Congress “ought to move in direction of how we measure health” and noted that “there is a lot of talk about prescription eating.” But Thompson added that clerks in grocery stores and in convenience stores, which he said are important in food deserts, don’t want to be the ones who are in charge of what people can buy with SNAP benefits. Thompson added, however, that most people who use SNAP benefits use cash and debit cards as well as the SNAP EBT card to complete their entire purchase. One reason is that SNAP benefits cannot be used to purchase hot foods. Thompson noted that a hoagie can be purchased with SNAP benefits, but not a rotisserie chicken. He added that SNAP was set up to purchase food to be taken home and prepared, although emergency SNAP benefits after weather events can sometimes be used to buy cooked food. |
As the committee considers the nutrition title of the bill, Thompson said it will be guided by inclusion of financial security, not just food security, innovation, integrity and healthy eating. On helping the specialty crops that are important in his district, LaMalfa said the industry finds the Market Access Program that is used to promote the export of these products to be important as well as access to crop insurance. Specialty crop producers need crop insurance that covers quality as well as weight, he said, adding that the committee wants to avoid ad hoc disaster bills. At the end of the meeting with reporters, Thompson noted that he had been on a panel with the other leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees at an American Farm Bureau Federation session this week. Reporters were not invited to that meeting, but Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall noted in a news release that 150 farmers from around the country had been present. Duvall said, “We know how important the farm bill is to maintaining a secure and sustainable food supply. I’m confident the personal stories shared by our members will help inspire lawmakers to support and swiftly pass a new farm bill.” |