Budget Negotiations Could Cause Farm Bill To Hit Familiar Cliff

Wisconsin dairy farmers could be in trouble if the next Farm Bill isn’t passed by the end of the year.

So says Congressman Mark Pocan, who forecasted the next few months through the government funding process to reporters earlier today.

While the US Senate has passed all of its funding bills out of committee, the House is lagging behind. That’s largely because House Republicans have suggested deep cuts to their versions of the bills, which Pocan says “is going to go absolutely nowhere.”

But a temporary government shutdown could be likely this fall, says Pocan, if a continuing resolution isn’t reached. That would come with the furlough of about 19,000 federal workers in Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, consumers would feel the hurt next January if lawmakers on Capitol Hill can’t pass the next Farm Bill – the bill that appropriates funding for agriculture for the next five years.

And if it doesn’t pass, the price of milk could skyrocket for consumers.

“Bad things really do happen, especially in dairy; basically it would triple the price of milk to consumers if we have that happen,” said Pocan.

But this isn’t a new threat.

“Every five years when we have this scare, there’s a scare about parity pricing,” says Kevin Bernhardt, a Professor of Agribusiness at UW-Plattville and a Farm Management Specialist for UW-Extension.

While a familiar threat, Bernhardt says the return to the economic theory of milk pricing – which would take inflation out of the equation – isn’t realistic.

“It’ll never happen. Congress would never let that happen. It would not only be disruptive to consumers, but it would so disrupt the markets all over the place, all over the world, that it would be a disaster for everybody,” says Bernhardt.

Meanwhile today, Congressman Pocan returned to state politics – taking aim at Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who is leading the charge to start impeachment proceedings against the state Supreme Court’s newest justice.

Republicans have been threatening to move forward with impeachment plans for Justice Janet Protasiewicz if she doesn’t recuse herself from a probable upcoming vote on a Supreme Court gerrymandering case, after she called the state’s current voting maps rigged during the April election.

Source: wortfm.org

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