After the Senate passed a Bill last year, the House failed to get around to their own. Now after nearly 2 yrs of work, the House has failed to passed a bill this afternoon. The House Farm Bill HR 1947 was defeated by a vote of 195 to 234.

Most farm bills are less partisan and more regional in contention. Not this one. The Republican controlled House cut much more from Food Stamps (SNAP Program) than their Senate colleagues thus creating a rift along party lines. Only 24 Democrats voted for the measure while 62 Republicans voted against. Some in the GOP felt there weren’t enough cuts in SNAP while others felt the bill cost too much as a whole.

A roll call vote list can be found here. Analysis of the vote and where we go from here will come soon.

Meanwhile in the Senate…. The Senators managing the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill faced an up hill battle until today. It seems that a breakthrough agreement has been reached with enough Republicans to move the measure.

Until today there had been a handful of Senators that were opposed to the bill mostly because of a weakened border security provision than had been originally proposed. Several amendments that would have increased border security all failed. Some of those amendments would require demonstrable catch rates, or double fencing, or similar.

Today it appears that an amendment sponsored by two Senators (Corker and Hoeven) will bring enough republicans to possibly pass a bill. The yet to be printed amendment has been discussed on the floor in principle but no language has been seen. The idea is adding 20,000 new border patrol agents, mandate E-Verify, and complete the 700 miles of fencing. The amendment may be available for a vote later today. The passage of this amendment will be somewhat of a bellwether for final passage.

Stay Tuned