Southern Cotton Growers Executive Committee, Mike Tate, Allen McLaurin, Ronnie Lee, Kent Wannamaker, David Dunlow, JW Jones and I traveled to Washington, DC earlier this week to visit with key members of Congress regarding the impending farm bill.  Also accompanying the group was Mary Lil Wannamaker and Donna Jones.

The main thing you need to understand is that the process is very fluid to say the least.  Most give odds that the House Ag Committee farm bill will not be debated and voted on until during the 6-week lame duck session following the November 6^th elections if even then.  Some questioned if there will even be a lame duck session while others say that there is already too many items on the agenda to warrant sufficient time to finalize a farm bill.  Having sufficient time to do anything is the real issue.

The House is in session through Friday of this week and only Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week and then they are out until after November 6^th.  Congress must pass a continuing resolution (CR) before they leave DC to keep government funded because the Continue reading →

The following was done with the cooperation of Jess Barr of the Louisiana Cotton Producers and David Ruppenicker.

Senate Debates Amendments and Passes Farm Bill

On Monday evening (June 18), Senate leadership reached an agreement to debate around 73 of the roughly 270 amendments that were proposed for the farm bill.  Debate on the amendments began the afternoon of June 19, and the Senate considered 27 amendments before adjourning for the day.  The Senate resumed debate on June 20 and handled all but 10 of the remaining amendments.  These remaining amendments were debated on June 21 before the bill was passed by a 64-35 margin.  It required 60 votes to pass.

The Senate has been largely non-functional for much of the last two years but came together to debate and pass this bill.  While I do not like many of the provisions in the bill, Continue reading →

Please read the open letter below from David Ruppenicker with the Southern Cotton Growers to his leadership yesterday. It sheds some light on what has been going on behind the scenes.

DSF