(KIWA Staff Photo)Washington, D.C. (RI) — A Farm Bill is now eligible for debate in the U-S Senate — but Iowa’s U.S. Senators objected when two of their own proposals were blocked from consideration Wednesday before the Senate Ag Committee voted to advance the bill.
Republican Senator Joni Ernst quarreled with the Republican who chairs the committee for several minutes.
The Ag Committee’s chairman says Wednesday’s meeting was to vote on the Senate’s Farm Bill in its current form and not re-open debate over additions to it. Ernst wanted to add language to respond to the California law that says pork sold in that state must come from pigs raised in certain conditions. She says her proposal would not override California’s law but would prevent other states from enacting mandates that set production standards for all U.S. farmers.
Ernst says her proposal was a balanced, middle-ground approach.
Senator Chuck Grassley says he was hoping the committee would vote on Ernst’s proposal.
Grassley also wanted to add language to the Farm Bill to ensure large corporations pay all that they owe to poultry producers they’ve hired to raise birds.
U.S. Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins has said the USDA needs more time to review the rules which were drafted during the Biden Administration.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune sits on the Ag Committee but didn’t wade into the disagreements among his fellow Republicans. Thune, who’s from South Dakota, criticized Democrats on the panel for voting against the bill because of changes in federal food assistance funding.
The Farm Bill that passed the House this spring did not get rid of the EPA’s smog-related regulations that prevent the sale of E15 during the summer months, but the House passed a stand-alone bill to allow E15 to be sold all year long. The Biden and Trump Administration have been waiving the summertime ban on E15 sales.
