Cantwell Pushes for Farm Bill Completion

Cantwell Pushes for Farm Bill Completion

Cantwell Pushes for Farm Bill Completion. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell from Washington State is not a shy lady. She speaks her mind and at a visit to a Spokane-area grain inspection lab with Eastern Washington wheat and potato growers she urged the House and Senate to begin a conference to work out the differences between each chamber’s Farm Bill.

CANTWELL: Nearly 2 years ago I started with my colleague Senator Johanns with a letter to the Senate leadership saying if you want to help our economy, let’s pass the farm bill. We were very worried almost a year ago that what was going to happen was an extension of a farm bill and not just a passage. But when you just extend a farm bill some of these good programs that we’ve been able to get into legislation whether it’s the lentil program or for the first time getting specialty crops as a permanent research program, disappear.

Once again we are in a clock ticking situation with just over 50 days left before the current bill expires.

CANTWELL: Why are we here? Because agriculture is still the number one employer in Washington. Our wheat and our potatoes end up on dinner tables not just here but around the United States and around the world. And we want to see wheat travel from places like Colfax to Asia because we know that that actually means jobs for people here, all across Washington State.

Without Congressional action, the nation would revert to the Farm Bill from 1949.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network. 

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