Today, the House is expected to vote on HR 2, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act, also known as the 2018 Farm Bill. House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas) has been gathering support all week, but it is still unclear if he has enough votes to pass the bill.
Democrats across the board oppose HR 2 for its proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. The Farm Bill is historically bipartisan legislation, but without any Democrat votes, Representative Conaway has to secure 218 Republican votes for a bill that is deeply unpopular among conservatives. Reports on the vote count are changing day-to-day as Representative Conaway and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) work to win over conservatives. Earlier this week the White House published a Statement of Administration Policy which said President Trump would sign the bill in its current form. In addition, President Trump tweeted in support of the bill late Thursday evening. The President’s support will help Representatives Conaway and Ryan lock-up votes with conservatives, but the final vote count will be down to the wire.
The House debated amendments to the bill all week in the Rules Committee and on the House floor. The House Rules Committee received over 100 amendments to the bill in the weeks leading up to the final vote, and debate will continue well into the afternoon. Congress has already passed several amendments to the forestry and conservation titles of HR 2. These amendments expand forest management activity on federal land, expand the Good Neighbor Authority, promote broadband deployment, and reduce environmental regulation. Many of these proposals will impact rural California, including:
- Amendment 31, proposed by Representative Doug LaMalfa (R-Butte) to streamline the Forest Service application process required to construct broadband infrastructure on federal land.
- Amendment 4, proposed by Representative Paul Gosar (R-Arizona), Authorizes counties to be included in Good Neighbor Authority cooperative agreements and contracts in order to improve forest health and bolster watershed restoration.
- Amendment 43, proposed by Representative Jaime Herrera-Beutler (R-Washington), directs the payment of a portion of stewardship project revenues to the county in which the stewardship project occurs.
- Amendment 56, proposed by Representative Greg Gianforte (R-Montana), authorizes expedited salvage operations for areas burned by wildfire to salvage dead trees and reforest to prevent re-burn, provide for the utilization of burned trees, or to provide a funding source for reforestation. Requires a two-month environmental assessment for reforestation activities and at least 75% of the burned area be reforested.
- Amendment 76, proposed by Representative Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas) requires the Forest Service to consider long-term health of our nation's forests when developing collaborative management plans, and shields agency decision making from certain injunctions on sustainable forest management.
- Amendment 77, proposed by Representative Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas) instructs the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Interior to provide Congress a yearly report tabulating the metrics surrounding wildfire prevention, including the number of acres treated and agency response time.
- Amendment 97, proposed by Representative Faso (D-New York) improves cooperation with the Forest Service to intercept tree and wood pests and would require a report on the interception of forest pests.
- Amendment 47, proposed by Representative Bob Latta (R-Ohio) Requires the Federal Communications Commission, in consultation with the United States Department of Agriculture, to establish a task force for reviewing the connectivity and technology needs of precision agriculture in the United States.
Representative Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona), Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee, took the floor several times to oppose the Republican’s forest management and conservation proposals. Grijalva argued these amendments will undermine the environmental review process required by the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Protection Act . In addition, Representative Jared Polis (D-Colorado) argued the forest management proposals renege Republican promises from the wildfire disaster funding agreement that was included in the 2018 Omnibus.
Republicans’ forest management and conservation proposals further entrenched the partisan divides over the bill. Even if HR 2 passes the House, it is unlikely these controversial measures will be included in the Senate version of the bill without support from Democrats.