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Bustos on House Agriculture Committee’s Farm Bill

Illinois’ 17th Congressional Representative says that her party is not being included in negotiations on the House’s Farm Bill.

Representative Cheri Bustos claims Democrats are being squeezed out of talks. She serves on the House Ag Committee, which released the first draft of the 2018 Farm Bill last Thursday.

She says that since Democrats are the minority in the party, Republican leadership has not included them in talks.

“The unfortunate part of it is I’m in the minority party in Washington DC. We have a 23 vote deficit so that means that we don’t have the power to bring anything up in committee nor vote on anything on the house floor,” Bustos said. “That’s up to Republican leadership and yet we as Democrats were ready last September to start in – a year out – before the Farm bill expires and start real negotiations.”

The first draft of the 2018 Farm Bill was released on Thursday.

Shortly after it’s release, American Farm Bureau Federation released a statement on the farm bill saying “We urge Congress to complete a new farm bill soon that promotes food security, a strong farm economy and the thousands of jobs that are supported by America’s agricultural productivity.”

Disagreements over federal food stamps held up work on the farm bill. The current bill will expire on September 30th.

The Senate’s Ag Committee has not yet released a draft of their version of the farm bill.

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