Walz, Nolan take differing approaches to farm bill

WASHINGTON — Let’s revisit the issue of the farm bill.

Collin Peterson showed off his characteristically pessimistic view of a long-term farm bill’s prospects in a Q and A  published yesterday— he’s worried about Republican leadership roadblocks and White House indifference, and while he said he’s ready and willing to work with lawmakers on the traditionally friendly Agriculture Committee to write a new bill, he won’t do so unless he knows it’s going to go somewhere in the full House.

Peterson is the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, and he counts among his colleagues two other Minnesota Democrats — Reps. Rick Nolan and Tim Walz. I took Walz’s and Nolan’s temperature on the issue, and of the three, really only Walz has high hopes for a farm bill this session.

As it stands now, farm programs are set to technically expire at the end of September. Because of the subsidy payment schedule, lawmakers essentially have until the end of the year to either put together a long-term bill, as the House and Senate tried to do last year, or extend current programs, which is what actually happened.

Last session, Walz joined Peterson in grousing about the lack of leadership support for the farm bill, but he said he sees an opening for the legislation this session — should the Ag Committee write it again. Using the final fiscal cliff deal as a model, he suggested Republican could bring the bill to the floor even if a significant portion of the conference opposes it, relying on votes from moderate members of both parties for final passage. (A snag in Walz’s theory could be Speaker John Boehner, who may be disinclined to bring up a farm bill that, unlike the fiscal cliff deal, he himself wouldn’t support.)

“I’m optimistic again that we can bring that thing up and hope we put together something as we did last time that had some real bipartisan support,” he said. “I think the farm bill could fall into that, where if we lose 100 on the left who think the cuts are too deep on something, and we lose 100 on the right now just don’t want to do anything when it concerns the farm bill, you’re still left with a majority.”

Rep. Tim Walz

Walz said last year’s iteration of the bill contains enough cuts to fulfill the desires of lawmakers looking to push on deficit reduction measures. Of those who didn’t want to bring up the bill last session, he said, “Basically by not allowing a vote on the farm bill, [they] thumbed their nose at $36 billion in reforms.”

Nolan, making his return to both Congress and the Agriculture Committee after three decades away, is approaching the bill with a little less optimism. Nolan has decried the slow pace of business on Capitol Hill and said he would like the Ag Committee (and every other committee, for that matter) to begin meeting right now to discuss deficit reduction measures.

Given the recent partisan battles that have scarred Capitol Hill, Nolan said he doesn’t think any more than a short-term farm bill extension passes the House this year, with maybe a longer-term fix to the dairy program, the expiration of which threatened to raise milk prices last year.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if we ended up just extending the program for x number of months or another year with some type of specifically-tailored fix to the dairy program,” he said.

The rest of the agenda

Meanwhile, there is more on the Agriculture Committee’s 2013 agenda than a farm bill (though that would dominate proceedings if it moves forward). Congress needs to reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates agriculture futures markets. Peterson said the committee will also help oversee the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.

Rep. Rick Nolan

Walz will likely be the ranking Democrat on the conservation, energy and forestry subcommittee, which Nolan said he hopes to serve on.

With three members, only Texas, California and Illinois (four) are better represented on the Agriculture Committee than Minnesota, which is fitting. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest census (conducted in 2007; the agency is collecting new data now), Minnesota has the seventh biggest agriculture industry in the country, with more than 80,000 farms generating more than $13 billion in products.

Peterson said Walz and Nolan will be good allies of his on the committee. But their effectiveness, as that of the committee as a whole, will depend on what they actually attempt to do this session.

“I look forward to having them there, but it’s hard to say whether it will make much difference or not,” he said. “First of all, we’re in the minority. Second, we don’t know if we’re even going to do anything.”

Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dhenry