Farm Bill Deadline Looms | Video

Jessica Roose | 9/20/2012

Tomorrow is the last time congress will meet until after the general election in November and it looks like members are leaving a key piece of legislation on hold until they get back. And it`s of great importance to North Dakota. The current Farm Bill expires at the end of the month and with Congress working just one more day until then it doesn`t look like the house will pass new Farm Bill legislation before then.

Many North Dakotans want to know, will a new farm bill be passed before the current one expires on September 30?

Unfortunately, it looks like that answer is going to be no.

"When we move past the first of the year, that puts the bill in great jeopardy. It`s very likely that there would be deep, deep additional cuts to it," said Democratic House Candidate Pam Gulleson.

The Senate was able to pass it`s version of the bill with bipartisan support in June. Since the bill came to the house, it hasn`t even made it to the floor.

"Club for growth and the tea party decided that they don`t want a Farm Bill. They don`t think that`s where we should be spending money in this country and I so philosophically disagree with them," Gulleson said.

Her Republican opponent, Kevin Cramer, says it`s not the groups, but it has to do with the larger and more diverse body in the House as opposed to the Senate.

"You can blame all kinds of groups but there are 435 members of Congress who are representative of their constituents back home."

Cramer says he`s hopeful something can be passed during the lame duck session after the election. If not, he plans to get to work right away in January if elected.

"I would spend every ounce of political capitol that I can collect for the good of the state of North Dakota and the farm bill would be a pretty major part of that."

Gulleson says her plan if elected would be to build a coalition and educate urban members about the importance of the bill for food security.

The Speaker of the House, John Boehner announced this afternoon that the house will address the Farm Bill this year, after the election.

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