-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email In February, during a tense House hearing over funding for the upcoming Farm Bill — one in which Agriculture Committee chair Glenn Thompson classified the current administration as being one that “demonizes farmers” if they do not “subscribe to a far-left climate agenda” — USDA Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack already seemed a little weary when he issued the seemingly simple directive: “The bottom line is, we need to get it done.” Vilsack’s charge to lawmakers came nearly five months after the 2018 Farm Bill had already expired in September, and as tensions between House Republicans and Democrats over budget priorities had really started to simmer; the Republicans want to allocate more funding to large-scale corporate farms, while Democrats want to prioritize federal nutrition assistance programs and conservation efforts. However, as evidenced by the fact that the package still isn’t funded, it’s a legislative challenge that’s more easily given than accomplished.
Now, Vilsack has a different message for Republican lawmakers: Be realistic. Related As the American hunger crisis worsens, Republicans prepare to take a big bite out of SNAP “I don't think we're close to getting a farm bill done until the folks who are negotiating the farm bill are realistic about what's doable within a constrained resource environment,” Vilsack said in an interview on the radio program AgriTalk on Thursday. The Farm Bill, which is.
