Blumenauer Statement on Passage of Partisan, Republican Farm Bill

The Farm Bill that passed the House of Representatives today is a total boondoggle. The manipulative decision of Republican leadership to separate the agricultural provisions of the bill from the nutrition provisions, to abandon all efforts at reform, and to bring the bill without allowing any amendments or hearings, is unforgiveable.

This could prove to be the costliest Farm Bill in history. It contains none of the necessary reforms that received broad support from advocacy organizations and during previous votes on the House floor. It concentrates federal cash on the largest most profitable agribusinesses. It shortchanges conservation, and guts protections for wetlands, prairies, and forests. It rewards government dependency, not innovation. This disaster of a bill managed to unite the League of Conservation Voters, the Environmental Working Group, the American Farm Bureau, and the Club for Growth in opposition. I hope the Republicans are proud of this accomplishment.