Farm Bill's Nutrition Title Narrowly Passes in House

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Nutrition bill on a 217-210 vote Thursday. Many of our ag organizations have been as anxiously been awaiting movement towards getting a farm bill passed.

The next step is for the House to name conferees so that they can try to reconcile differences with the Senate. Jackie Klippenstein - Vice President for Industry and Legislative Affairs with the Dairy Farmers of America shares how the dairy title is faring in all this debate.

Klippenstein: "In the Senate version of the Farm Bill the dairy industry was able to secure a program called the Dairy Security Act -- that is what dairy farmers and other dairy leaders have been working on for four years. So we were delighted to see the Senate embrace our proposal. In the house version, while the committee supported our proposal, we lost a crucial vote on the House floor that would took key component out of that program. So we go into the conference with what we want in the Senate and half of what we want in House but we feeling really good about our supporters and our ability to pull it all together in conference."

Klippenstein says the timeframe for the next steps for Congress are still uncertain.

Klippenstein: "If you really take a look at what Congress needs to do in the remaining legislative days in September, the Farm Bill probably won't be passed. We are looking at a post-September passage -- which is disheartening -- but if we can get that done this year than Congress will have served rural America."