Congressman Frank Lucas (R-OK), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, stated: “On this day, on this vote, the House worked its will.  I’m obviously disappointed, but the reforms in H.R. 1947 – $40 billion in deficit reduction, elimination of direct payments and the first reforms to SNAP since 1996 – are so important that we must continue to pursue them.  We are assessing all of our options, but I have no doubt that we will finish our work in the near future and provide the certainty that our farmers, ranchers, and rural constituents need.”

Congressman Collin Peterson (D-MN), ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, noted:  “The farm bill failed to pass the House today because the House Republicans could not control the extreme right wing of their party. From day one I cautioned my colleagues that to pass a farm bill we would have to work together. Instead, the House adopted a partisan amendment process, playing political games with extreme policies that have no chance of becoming law.  This flies in the face of nearly four years of bipartisan work done by the Agriculture Committee. I’ll continue to do everything I can to get a farm bill passed, but I have a hard time seeing where we go from here.”

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Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack commented: “The failure by the House leadership, for the second year in a row, to reach consensus on a Food, Farm and Jobs Bill is a tremendous disappointment for all Americans. Twice now, the U.S. Senate has done its job and passed balanced, comprehensive legislation with overwhelming bipartisan support. Unfortunately, the House version of this bill would have unfairly denied food assistance for millions of struggling families and their children, while failing to achieve needed reforms or critical investments to continue economic growth in rural America. As a result, the House was unable to achieve bipartisan consensus."

As the agricultural groups were stating their disappointment in the House’s failure to pass the farm bill, the conservative groups, Heritage Forum, the National Taxpayers Union, and Bread for the World, praised the defeat of the farm bill.  

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