U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spent Tuesday morning at the University of Kentucky discussing this year’s Farm Bill with state agriculture leaders. McConnell was joined by Arkansas Senator John Boozman, the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. After the meeting, which was closed to the press, Boozman suggested farmers will be happy with the end result.
“We're in the early stages of negotiations with the House. But I think at the end of the day, we'll come up with a product that we will be proud of.”
Congress produces a Farm Bill every five years.
“Any idea how this year's farm bill will differ from the last one Congress passed?”
“Well, we hope, whatever changes are made, will be beneficial to Kentucky. I will say this, though, new spending is going to be hard to come by. We passed an agreement with the debt ceiling to put a cap on spending. And so a lot of additional spending in this farm bill, it seems to me is unlikely.”
Kentucky Agriculture Secretary Ryan Quarles and Nancy Cox, the dean of UK’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, also took part in the roundtable.
