Potato Council on Speaker and Farm Bill Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. So, following the ousting of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, what does a potential government shutdown right after Thanksgiving mean?
National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles says it means there are some in the House majority, with a no compromise attitude, that keep anything from getting done …
QUARLES … “And then the Farm Bill, yeah, it has expired. It expired on midnight September 30th and that’s another huge spending bill that is obviously going to receive objection from some of these real hard-liners in the House.”
So, I asked Quarles, what if we did a Farm Bill extension? …
QUARLES … “The danger in that to me Bob is, we’ve done that with other pieces of legislation and the calculation at the time, when it begins, is this is going to be a short-term extension.”
Similar extensions in the past, Quarles said took years to renegotiate, while some are still waiting …
QUARLES … “In an increasingly competitive global environment for agriculture it is a terrible path to start down. And I think everybody in agriculture has to be pounding the tables saying folks need to get their houses in order. We need to get people here who can actually make a deal.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on replacing the House Speaker and why it could come back to bite us all … right in the Farm Bill.
