The U.S. House passed one version of a Farm Bill after months of debate, but the Senate passed another, and a local Congresswoman hopes for some sort of compromise.
After all, 17th District Congresswoman Cheri Bustos tells WGIL, the two bills are almost nothing alike, and the one her chamber passed is the worst.
“It’s a terrible bill,” says Bustos (D-East Moline). “It only passed by a two vote margin. Twenty Republicans voted against it, and every Democrat voted against it. However, what gives me hope is that the Senate passed [a Farm Bill] in wide bi-partisan fashion by more than 80 votes in favor of it. It’s a good bill. So what happens now is we’ll take the House version and the Senate version, and go to a Conference Committee and work out the differences.”
Just how bad does Bustos think the House version of the Farm Bill is?
“The Rural Development Program, which is critical to towns all over our Congressional District…the House version zeroed out the budgeting for that,” says Bustos. “Almost every town in Knox County has been helped one way or another.”
The current Farm Bill, passed in 2014, expires in September. Bustos says she wants a seat on the Conference Committee, but isn’t holding out hope she’ll get it.
