House Republican infighting dooms farm bill
Immigration feud overshadows measure as Freedom Caucus deals blow to Ryan
WASHINGTON — The House, in a striking display of Republican division, rejected an $867 billion farm bill on Friday that would have imposed strict new work requirements on beneficiaries of federal food aid while continuing farm subsidies popular with rural voters.
The twice-a-decade farm policy measure failed on a 213-198 vote, after a key bloc of conservatives rebuked Speaker Paul Ryan over his refusal to schedule an immediate vote on a restrictive immigration bill sponsored by the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Robert Goodlatte of Virginia. Some 30 Republicans joined with every chamber Democrat in opposition.
Ryan and Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, failed to head off the revolt after intense negotiations with members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus. Ryan told colleagues he refused to be held hostage by the upstarts, then gambled that he would be able to find enough votes to pass the legislation, despite unified Democratic opposition.
But the support never materialized, dealing a blow to Ryan, who recently announced his intention to retire next year.
In the end, the farm bill, a measure with huge implications for low-income families and the agricultural industry, became little more than a bargaining chip in the
heated intraparty battle over immigration.
All four U.S. House members from Arkansas voted for the bill.
Arkansas Farm Bureau President Randy Veach said he was disappointed by Friday’s vote.
Farm Bureau members were on Capitol Hill earlier this week to discuss the legislation with lawmakers, and Veach praised the Arkansas congressmen for backing the bill.
“If we don’t move this farm bill through, then it could be a long, long time before we ever get back to the table to get a farm bill put in place,” he said.
Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican from Jonesboro who serves on the House Agriculture Committee, said he was “very disappointed” by the failure of the bill, calling it “a critical piece of legislation.”
While Crawford wants to see a vote on Goodlatte’s conservative immigration legislation, Friday wasn’t the right day for that discussion, he said.
“It seems to me like you put politics aside and do the right thing by your constituents to get [the] farm bill to the finish line and then we can have this immigration fight later,” he said.
The other three members released written statements lamenting the outcome.
“We let down hard-working Arkansans, and failed to pass a bill that included a number of things vital for farmers across the Fourth Congressional District,” said Rep. Bruce Westerman, a Republican from Hot Springs.
Rep. Steve Womack, a Republican from Rogers, said the bill had been “caught in the crossfire of a totally unrelated issue — a feud within the House on immigration.” He expressed hope that the bill will eventually pass, adding, “Our farmers and ranchers deserve better.”
Rep. French Hill expressed regret that “an unrelated concern” had derailed the bill.
“I look forward to pursuing consensus that produces both a good farm bill and an equitable compromise on immigration,” the Republican from Little Rock said.
Not even a tweet from President Donald Trump supporting the legislation could save it from the chaos Friday.
It was unclear when House Republican leaders might try again to pass the measure. The current measure expires at the end of September.
“I thought we had enough people that would vote yes,” said Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, R-N.C., the chief deputy whip, who shortly before the vote assured reporters that Republicans had enough support for passage.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a founder of the Freedom Caucus, said lawmakers needed to get a resolution on immigration “that’s consistent with the mandate of the election” that put Trump in the White House.
“That’s all this was about,” said Jordan, a possible candidate to succeed Ryan, after voting against the farm measure. “That’s what we’re focused on.”
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said colleagues who switched sides over immigration, not over the substance of the farm bill, had made a mistake.
“You don’t hold one thing hostage for something that’s totally different and has nothing to do with it,” Cole said, adding, “At some point, you
either trust your leaders or you don’t.”
The collapse of the farm bill represents a significant loss for Trump, who had pressured Republican leaders to include new work rules in the bill and had called the measure “strong” in a tweet on Thursday.
And it was a setback to Ryan, raising questions about his ability to run an already fractious Republican conference as a lame duck. It also raised questions about the capacity of his possible successors, including McCarthy and the majority whip, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, to legislate effectively.
Shortly after the bill failed, McHenry told reporters that another challenge to leadership, coming from the party’s moderates, seemed on the brink of success. A group of Republicans, some facing tough re-election climbs in November, have signed a procedural petition that would force a series of votes on immigration bills. The moderate lawmakers are seeking action by the House to address the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama-era initiative that protects young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. Trump moved last year to end the program.
“Good riddance to the House GOP farm bill, which was both cruel and counterproductive,” said Joel Berg, chief executive of Hunger Free America, a nationwide advocacy group that opposed the work requirements provision. “The bill, if passed, would have somehow managed to take food away from millions of struggling Americans while increasing government bureaucracy and intrusion into people’s private lives.”
For all the drama, the House bill was already expected to be set aside by the Senate, which has been working on its own bipartisan farm policy measure. The farm legislation will need 60 votes in the Senate, meaning that Republicans, even if they are unified, will not be able to pass a partisan bill in that chamber.
The farm bill, despite its pastoral name, is one of the most politically sensitive policy bills Congress is required to pass. Passage is invariably engineered by a coalition of urban Democratic legislators seeking to maintain nutrition benefits under attack from conservative budget cutters, and rural Republicans determined to shield subsidies for sugar, corn, cotton and other commodities.
The bill was drafted by the House Agriculture Committee chairman, Mike Conaway, R-Texas, with little Democratic input.
Conaway and other mainstream Republicans from rural areas wanted to preserve backbone agricultural supports while fighting back challenges from the right to reduce subsidies to the sugar industry.
But he also sought to accommodate the White House and outside conservative groups, which demanded new election-year initiatives to reduce the rolls of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program which Trump regards, along with Medicaid and housing aid, as “welfare.”
The bill also expands funding for state-level job-training programs. But as a condition of enrollment, recipients would be required to submit themselves to greater record-keeping requirements.
Those provisions are intended to discourage participation in the program, formerly known as food stamps, and would likely lead to “thousands of people who need food assistance to simply fall off the rolls,” said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based liberal research organization.