In a stunning move, the U.S. House voted against approving farm bill legislation Thursday, leaving the bill's future up in the air.
The House rejected the farm bill on a final tally of 234-195 after a day of dramatic, tight votes on amendments to the bill.
Facing a raft of challenges from all sides – from liberal Democrats objecting to the levels of cuts to the food stamp program to conservative Republicans charging the bill is too expensive – the farm bill always faced a rocky road in the House. In the end Thursday, House leaders couldn’t cobble together enough votes, especially with many fiscally conservative Republicans opposing the bill.
The Senate passed its farm bill earlier this month. If a bill emerges from the House, it will need to be reconciled with the Senate version before it heads to President Obama’s desk.
What happens now? No one knows. Last year, the House failed to even take up the farm bill on the House floor. That led to an eleventh-hour agreement on a one-year extension of the previous farm bill, which expires Sept. 30.
Both House and Senate leaders have said they hope to hammer out compromise legislation before lawmakers head home for the August recess, which begins Aug. 3. But that certainly looks doubtful now, without a House bill to work with
Here’s how the Colorado delegation voted on the Farm Bill:
Democrats: Diana DeGette, N; Ed Perlmutter, N; Jared Polis, N.
Republicans: Mike Coffman, N; Cory Gardner, Y; Doug Lamborn, N; Scott Tipton, Y.
KUNC and Harvest Public Media's Luke Runyon contributed to this post.
