WASHINGTON — In the four years since Congress enacted the current farm bill, more than 40 percent of the seats in the House have turned over.
Nearly 200 of the 435 members may know little about the multiyear, far-ranging and sometimes contentious legislation, posing a challenge to House Agriculture Chairman Glenn Thompson as he writes a 2023 farm bill. Thompson, R-Pa., faces a tight timetable because his panel is slated, under an arrangement with the Senate Agriculture Committee, to take the lead on moving legislation before the current farm bill expires Sept. 30.
Interest groups with a stake in the bill talk openly about the many newcomers as they seek to get their messages to lawmakers, even on the House Agriculture Committee. Only nine of the panel’s 27 Republican members, including Thompson, were in the 115th Congress, which produced the 2018 farm bill. House Democrats haven’t yet named their committee roster.
