As the House of Representatives headed home for the holidays, Agriculture Committee Chair David Scott fired a parting shot at Speaker Mike Johnson. The Georgia Democrat says Johnson failed to begin farm bill negotiations with the Senate as he previously proposed.
“The failure of the House Republican leadership to support rural America was foreshadowed when they manufactured a debt default crisis, attempted to force a government shutdown, and then proposed an agriculture appropriations bill that was so damaging to rural development and research that it was voted down and then abandoned by their own Republican members,” Scott said in a Dec. 14 press release. “With no commitment from the House Republican leadership to find additional funds for the House Agriculture Committee’s efforts to improve the farm bill’s safety net, Chairman Thompson is forced to look at cutting other agriculture programs.” Read more