Farm Bill Do-over Necessary Due to Clerical Error
Error means Congress will vote again on Farm Bill.
Jason Vance
Published: May 22, 2008
Congress passed the Farm Bill, the President vetoed it, and the House overrode the veto. But it looks like a clerical error will require a do-over starting with Congress voting on the Farm Bill Conference Report.
"When the enrolling clerk enrolled the bill to send to the White House, somehow or another they inadvertently or how ever it happened did not include the trade title, Title III of the bill in the official documents that went to the White House," says House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn. "So the President vetoed the bill minus the trade title, Title III."
While the override vote went through passing 316-108, recommendations have been made by parliamentarians to start the process over again. So Congress will vote on the Farm Bill, they'll send it to the President with the trade title included this time, he'll veto it and it will come back to Congress for an override vote.
"We can pass a full bill again. I think that's likely, or we can just do Title III," says House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
The House is scheduling a vote first thing Thursday morning and because Congress is slated to adjourn for the Memorial Day recess on Friday, a vote to extend the current farm legislation that expires Friday will also be held. While it looked as though the Farm Bill would be completed before the recess, this error will likely push final approval into June.
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Tagged: farm, farm bill
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