Negotiations to protect billions of dollars in the Biden administration’s climate law for farmland conservation hit a snag Thursday as Congress struggled to extend the 2018 farm bill.
House Democratic staff members said their efforts to move as much as $14.5 billion in conservation money from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 into the farm bill extension have hit stiff resistance from House Republican leadership, despite concessions offered.
The likelihood may be growing, they said, that the bump-up in conservation assistance the Inflation Reduction Act provided will simply vanish next year as the incoming Republican leadership and Trump administration look to reverse the Inflation Reduction Act and slash costs. A new farm bill would advance without the Inflation Reduction Act money, a significant departure from the bill the Republican-led Agriculture Committee passed in May.
Reflecting shifting priorities, the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, John Boozman of Arkansas, told reporters Thursday he’s less focused on conservation than on providing quick economic relief to farmers who’ve experienced falling incomes and high operational costs the past two years.
