An ag lobbyist says the 2023 Farm Bill will take a back seat to the appropriations bills when Congress returns to work following its August recess.
Mary Kay Thatcher with Syngenta says if a deal isn’t reached by September 30 the situation gets more complicated. “It could be that we have three or four of these bills that are funded,” she says. “We could see the ag appropriations bill done by September 30th and then USDA wouldn’t shut down, it would be other sections.”
But, she tells Brownfield, there are some caveats. “The very right-wing Republicans have worked to deal into the bill where unless all 12 appropriations bills get done, there’s an automatic 1% across the board cut to every department’s budget,” she says.
