Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow and ranking member Pat Roberts helped negotiate an amendment deal on the farm bill.
For example, the Senate approved a transportation and infrastructure bill in March with 74 votes, but the conference committee tasked with finding a final package is faltering. The House did not come to the table with a comparable bill, failing to produce its own legislation that would have enough votes to pass its chamber.
Moreover, the conservative wing of the House GOP is government-spending averse, and even though the Senate version of the farm bill would shave $23.6 billion from the deficit, it’s likely House Republicans would defect over funding programs such as crop insurance or food stamps.
Because the farm legislation includes deficit savings, some aides had suggested it might be used in negotiations later in the year as an offset. But today, a now-or-never attitude pervaded the Senate side of the Capitol, as aides milled about the hallways just off the chamber, working their cellphones and conferring with each other and with Senators.
Multiple sources familiar with Democratic negotiations said this week would be the do-or-die week for the bill, and the agreement reached later in the evening suggests there is life for legislation that just one week ago seemed to be headed toward a legislative coma.
If and when the Senate wraps work on the farm bill, multiple aides said flood insurance legislation would be taken up next.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra and Rep. Joseph Crowley, vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, address a news conference immediately after the closed caucus meeting.
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