Senate Farm Bill Work Tentatively Seen Week Of June 6

Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said he wants to introduce the Senate farm bill as soon as June 6 and expects it to go from committee to the Senate floor in short order."We have a target date of June 6, and that could be a moving target, so we can get the bill out and have everybody discuss it and hopefully have it on the floor [the] next week," Roberts said during an appearance at an event in Manhattan, Kansas, with colleague Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue.That could mean the bill would come to the Senate floor the week of June 12, noting it has a "clear path" as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., promised him he would not file cloture on the bill, which would delay consideration.As for details of the bill, they remain unclear. But Roberts said the legislation will “fix the ARC program to some degree,” referring to the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) program that triggers payments to commodity farmers when the average crop revenue in their county drops below a guaranteed level.But he was critical of a plan pushed by some – likely the plan by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio – that would benefit one region of the country over another. "That does not cut it with me," Roberts stated. "Look guys, we either hang together or hang separately." He pledged no commodity will be hurt by the Senate package.Roberts also pushed back against a mandatory base update that some are pushing for, saying that would cost Kansas more than 300,000 acres of base and Texas about one million base acres. The base update was reportedly being pushed by some soybean industry lobbyists.