Farm Bill Gets a Paper Bale

The Senate farm bill is back at the policy feed bunk, and everyone has brought a scoop.

The big pile: U.S. Senator John Boozman, R-Ark., chair of the Senate Agriculture

Committee, released Farm Bill 2.0 with more than 100 bipartisan priorities tucked inside. That is not a bill summary, that is a policy hay bale with footnotes.

What’s in the wagon: The draft is pitched around stronger risk management, conservation flexibility, specialty crops, drought tools, rural small business, broadband, research and next-generation producers. It also includes year-round E15, because apparently fuel policy wanted a seat in the tractor too.

The wrinkle: The committee process has been inching toward markup while lawmakers sort through timing, jurisdiction and the usual congressional sport of making a long bill longer. Boozman previously said markup could come as soon as the next week, provided committee scheduling and member negotiations lined up. Truly, nothing says urgency like waiting for Congress to find its calendar.

Why it matters: A farm bill decides a lot of the plumbing behind crop insurance, credit, conservation, rural development and research. For producers, that makes the details less abstract than a Washington press conference and more like the fine print on whether next year’s farm budget pencils out. The bill still has furrows to cross, but at least the tractor is moving.