Farm bill scuttled with supercommittee failure

Leaders from the House and Senate agriculture committees said Monday that they’ve finally reached a proposal that would cut $23 million out of the 2012 farm bill, but it isn’t likely to see the light of day any time soon.

The new legislation, one of the nation’s most significant bills, was scheduled to be submitted to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as the supercommittee, without debate or public comment. The specially formed committee, assigned to cut the deficit by $1.5 trillion in the next 10 years, was scheduled to issue a budget recommendation on Wednesday that would have been put to an up-or-down vote with no amendments, no House blocks and no filibusters.

But the supercommittee, made up of six senators and six House members from both parties, failed to reach a deal. So the farm bill proposal is being scuttled. Congress will have to start over next year. The 2008 farm bill expires Sept. 30. The San Francisco Chronicle

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