By every measure, America is experiencing the worst drought since the Eisenhower era. Nearly a third of the counties in the United States have been declared disaster areas. The drought covers more than half the country and continues to spread. It means parched grasslands, wildfires, snowless mountain peaks and record low stream-flow in the West. It also means sobering crop losses and their financial and political consequences.

According to the United States Drought Monitor, nearly 90 percent of the corn and soybeans on American farms have been damaged or destroyed. Reserve stocks of both are tight, causing prices to jump. Insurance and disaster aid will keep most farms afloat, though small farmers will suffer disproportionately.

Livestock producers are faring even worse than commodity farmers. Their feed prices have risen sharply; corn that was $6 a bushel in early June, Goldman Sachs predicts, could be $9 a bushel in three months. Their pastures and fields are in terrible shape, and they have none of the insurance protections that grain farmers enjoy. A drought drives livestock herds quickly to market, causing a temporary glut and low prices that merely exacerbate producers’ woes. The biggest livestock producers are arranging to import corn from Brazil.

Against this dire backdrop, the House of Representatives, with time running out before the August recess, appears to have abandoned any attempt to move forward with its version of a new five-year farm bill. As Politico reported, the House has never before failed to act in a timely way on a farm bill approved by the Agriculture Committee. At the same time, there is no reason to rush forward with a bad farm bill just because of the drought (even if the present farm program expires, farmers will continue to receive crop insurance). And a bad bill is precisely what the House committee has approved and the Senate has already passed.