Boehner and Cantor, fiddling while farmlands burn.

Boehner and Cantor, fiddling while farmlands burn.

Farm-state House members, including a number of Republicans, are trying to force House Speaker John Boehner to bring the House version of the farm bill to the floor before they recess at the end of next week. The current farm bill expires on Sept. 30. While the Senate passed a bipartisan bill, with nearly a two-thirds majority vote back in June, Boehner has refused to move forward on the bill in the House. So nearly 40 members have signed a discharge petition, a maneuver that would force the bill to the floor if the petition is signed by a majority of the House. Republicans Reps. Rick Berg of North Dakota, Kristi Noem of South Dakota and Dennis Rehberg of Montana are among the nine Republicans who've signed so far.

Meanwhile, the Democrat who introduced the petition, Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA), says Boehner is playing procedural games to keep the bill off the floor. The Agriculture Committee chair delivered the text of the bill his committee approved on Monday, but apparently then, another committee claimed jurisdiction, which ties the bill up with the House parliamentarian.



“Games are being played in Washington, as Speaker Boehner is using all the moves in the procedural playbook to keep the farm bill off the House Floor. He has decided to personally overrule the bipartisan majority of the House Agriculture Committee by keeping the bill bottled up,” he said. “Now, Speaker Boehner is preventing the reporting of the bill, over the objection of 35 Agriculture Committee Members who voted to report, and it’s been 64 days. Speaker Boehner needs to end the games, and allow the Congress to do its job by voting on the bill,” Braley added.

Boehner is putting his farm state members, and particularly those running for the Senate like Berg and Rehberg, in a terrible position. He's also pissing off the majority of the big farm trade groups. The discharge petition maneuver is unlikely to work; the majority of Democrats are opposed to the House bill because of the draconian cuts it makes to food stamps, while teabagger Republicans think it spends too much. The responsible thing for Boehner to do would be to bring the Senate bill to the floor, and work with Democrats to pass it.

But Boehner isn't a responsible leader, so for the first time in modern history, the House is choosing not to pass a farm bill.