The U.S. Senate’s version of the federal farm bill – Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act – passed that body on Thursday by a bipartisan vote of 64 to 35. The Senate version is generally in line with cattle industry priorities. This is a positive development as most of the more radical amendments under consideration were thought to have a better chance in the Senate than the House.
The Senate bill claims to save the taxpayer $20 billion, while controversial amendments, such as the Humane Society of the U.S. and United Egg Producers provision, and a ban on packer ownership of cattle, were defeated. An amendment that would have prohibited aerial inspections of CAFOs by the Environmental Protection Agency also was defeated. However, most of the portions of the conservation title that were important to cattlemen remained intact.
Meanwhile, the House, which had planned to hold markup next week, has pushed it back to July 11.
List below are additional industry responses on the Senate's version of the farm bill:
