The House of Representatives rejected a sweeping farm bill worth $867 million on Friday after leaders in the Republican Party failed to come to terms with conservative lawmakers who wanted the bill held off until after they had been allowed to consider a tough new immigration bill.
It is unclear what the future now holds for the farm bill, with the attempt to pass it through the House of Representatives having become entangled with the immigration debate. The House Freedom Caucus, a consortium of conservatives, has tried to pre-empt an attempt by Democrats and more moderate Republicans to use procedural tactics to force the House floor to undertake a wide-ranging debate on immigration.
On Thursday, lawmakers in the Freedom Caucus warned Republican leaders that the farm bill vote should be delayed until a debate had taken place and voted on a more conservative immigration bill. The failure of the farm bill represents an embarrassing failure for Republican leaders in the House of Representatives, who have been trying to avoid the broader debate on immigration wanted by moderates, including voting on a bipartisan bill that President Donald Trump or other conservative Republicans would almost certainly not accept.
Doug Andres, a spokesman for House Speaker, Paul Ryan, says the members were offered the vote they had been looking for but still decided to reject the bill, but the offer was slammed as being ‘unclear’ by Freedom Caucus head, Representative Mark Meadows.