Speaker of the House John Boehner on Wednesday pledged his support for the farm bill scheduled to come to the House floor next week — a departure from speculation he was opposed to many of its parts.
“I’m going to vote for the farm bill to make sure that the good work of the Agriculture Committee and whatever the floor might do to improve this bill gets to a conference so that we can get the kind of changes that people want in our nutrition programs and in our farm programs,” the Republican representative from Ohio said, according to The Hill.
In a statement as recent as Monday, Boehner did not reveal how he would vote on the $1 trillion House bill. The Senate passed its own $900 billion-plus version the same day, but the speaker is widely believed to oppose many pieces of the legislation.
“As a longtime proponent of top-to-bottom reform, my concerns about our country’s farm programs are well known. But as I said on the day I became speaker, my job isn’t to impose my personal will on this institution or its members,” Roll Call reported Boehner said.
After voting against the 2002 and 2008 bills, Boehner is more inclined to support the 2013 model with its $20.5 billion in food stamp cuts — a popular component to the more than half of Boehner’s conference that supports it.
The bill is expected to cut a total of $40 billion in spending from existing agriculture policies, including an end to direct farm payments funding inactive farmers.
The speaker’s endorsement is expected to boost support, but is no guarantee of getting the 218 votes needed to pass. The remaining fiscal conservatives on Boehner’s right want even deeper cuts to food stamps, while the same provision has alienated the majority of Democrats in opposition.
Conservative think tanks and activist groups including Heritage Action, Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Environmental Working Group and Club for Growth strongly oppose the consistently-increasing price tag of the farm bill, and want steeper cuts to crop insurance, direct payment and food stamp programs. Some say they will negatively score the vote records of Republicans supporting the bill.
Rural Republicans, including Majority Whip and California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, are in favor of enacting the legislation, which brings important subsidy money back to their home states.
The overdue farm bill was avoided last year for fear of further dividing mainstream Republicans from the more fiscally-constrained tea party freshmen.
Majority Leader and Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor has yet to reveal how he will vote.
A formal Republican whip count Wednesday looked increasingly positive, while Agriculture Committee ranking member and Democratic Delaware Rep. Collin Peterson estimates 50 favorable votes from Democrats.