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“Political will” needed to get farm bill done on time

A policy specialist says it will take tremendous political will for the House and Senate conference committees to get the 2018 Farm Bill done on time.

Jonathan Coppess with the University of Illinois tells Brownfield concessions on the nutrition title will have to be made.

“If there’s a political will to get the farm bill done in the House, then it’s going to require backing down on SNAP.”

He says there are also major differences to settle on conservation before the current farm bill expires September 30th.

“I would not count it out.  I don’t know where to place odds on it, but they’ve made significant progress in a short amount of time.”

Congress has completed the necessary procedural steps to begin conference negotiations.  And Coppess says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing for an aggressive timeline.