COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Congress isn’t likely to have a new farm bill in place before next spring, representatives of the National Association of Wheat Growers predict.

Keira Franz, environmental policy adviser, and Jack Long, government relations representative, spoke to wheat farmers during the Tri-State Grain Growers Convention in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

The House ag committee needs to know the timeline for discussion on the House floor, which will likely be April at the earliest, given an expected continued congressional fight over continuing resolutions to fund the government in January or February, Franz said.

“Looking at that timeline, it’s going to probably be spring at the earliest before we could see substantial activity,” she said.

The House ag committee chair, Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., keeps saying a draft farm bill is “pretty close,” whenever NAWG asks, Franz and Long said.

Senate ag committee chair Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., is “very passionate” about completing the bill before she ends her term in 2024, and before the election cycle picks up, Long said.

“There is a lot of forward motion on both the leadership sides,” he said. “It’s just a matter of overcoming these hurdles that the committees themselves do not start.”

Those hurdles include the removal of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy; the scramble to find his replacement, Mike Johnson, and tight ratios in the congressional makeup.

Republicans have the majority in the House and Democrats have the majority in the Senate.

“The differences between the majority party and the minority party is not really significant enough to carry the day in a lot of votes,” Franz said. “It’s really creating turmoil on how to move forward with funding the government.”

Discussions in the House and Senate ag committees center on funding, Franz said.

“If you’re going to increase the crop insurance reference price, if you’re going to double (the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development program), all of those are added to the budget,” she said. 

The continued congressional turmoil delays the Congressional Budget Office’s review of any draft farm bills for their cost impact — required before floor discussions or any final policy decision.

“The staff at CBO is directed (to) putting out these fires over here, so they don’t have time to address some of the farm bill stuff,” she said. “Everything the committees are putting to the CBO staff, it’s taking much longer than they have anticipated, so that’s really delaying the process.”  

Election pressure will pick up over the next year.

“We’re taking a politically charged situation and making it even more intense as we go into an election cycle,” she said.

The delay doesn’t cost agriculture anything in the new bill, Franz said.

“This is not abnormal,” she said. In 2007, the 2002 farm bill was extended six times into 2008.  The 2008 bill was extended for one year into 2013. 

“It’s just really waiting for those discussions on money,” Franz said.

“Spring to maybe early summer, but I think we’re looking at spring as the next finishing line,” Long said.