Hoyer Statement on House Passage of GOP Farm Bill
For Immediate Release:
June 21, 2018
Contact Info:
Annaliese Davis 202-225-4131
WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today on House Republicans’ passage of the GOP Farm Bill, after they failed to pass the bill in May:
“After having failed to pass their partisan Farm Bill last month, Republican leaders brought to the Floor for a second time a bad bill that takes food assistance away from hungry families. Instead of working with Democrats to bring a bill to the Floor that could garner the support of a bipartisan majority, they have passed a bill that is going nowhere. It is representative of the flawed way in which Republicans have chosen to use their Majority – not to govern by building consensus but to force through hastily written legislation and load it with extreme provisions in order to placate the far-right Freedom Caucus. As a result, we have seen dysfunction and policies that harm the most vulnerable.
“Nothing has changed since the last time this bill came to the Floor, so it begs the question what Members who joined to defeat this bill before were promised by their leadership to change their votes this time. Now, it is up to the Senate to reject this partisan effort and instead pass a bipartisan Farm Bill that provides certainty to the farming community and maintains our commitment to combatting hunger in this country.”
“After having failed to pass their partisan Farm Bill last month, Republican leaders brought to the Floor for a second time a bad bill that takes food assistance away from hungry families. Instead of working with Democrats to bring a bill to the Floor that could garner the support of a bipartisan majority, they have passed a bill that is going nowhere. It is representative of the flawed way in which Republicans have chosen to use their Majority – not to govern by building consensus but to force through hastily written legislation and load it with extreme provisions in order to placate the far-right Freedom Caucus. As a result, we have seen dysfunction and policies that harm the most vulnerable.
“Nothing has changed since the last time this bill came to the Floor, so it begs the question what Members who joined to defeat this bill before were promised by their leadership to change their votes this time. Now, it is up to the Senate to reject this partisan effort and instead pass a bipartisan Farm Bill that provides certainty to the farming community and maintains our commitment to combatting hunger in this country.”