Committee Chairman Lucas: Congress must 'think outside the box' to save the Farm Bill

Rep. Frank Lucas

"House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) says more 'outside the box' thinking will be needed to pass a new Farm Bill this fall and he is prepared to support 'bigger ideas' to get the task done," David Rogers reports for Politico. Lucas told Rogers, “The positions are locked in so tight on so many issues, that to achieve a consensus that we can pass on both floors, that we get the president to sign, we may have to think outside the box. I’m not opposed to bigger ideas. I just want to get it done.”

Lucas wouldn't reveal any specifics about new ideas, "but his comments reflect the pressure on the agriculture community to take a bolder approach if a new farm bill is to be salvaged this year," Rogers writes. "Already the historic farmer-food aid alliance has been fractured in the House by Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s strategy of stripping out the nutrition title and cutting up to $40 billion over 10 years from the food-stamp program. Huge regional differences remain over the commodity title. And if any compromise is to be reached on nutrition programs, it will most likely require new savings from crop insurance to make the package salable."

Lucas said he expected talks on the Farm Bill to begin soon, but "suggested it could very well be delayed until the week of Sept. 22," Rogers writes. "But first up is a floor vote, now expected late next week, on Cantor’s food-stamp cuts. The leadership has begun whipping the vote, and Monday now appears to be the probable date for the legislation’s release, according to GOP staff. . . . Even when he gets to conference with the Senate, Lucas acknowledged that party leaders will have a big say in the final outcome of the nutrition title." He told Rogers, “We’ll try on nutrition; we won’t be able to get to a consensus." (Read more)