Fun with Farm Bill Amendments

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After all the chaos I thought I’d flag a few interesting amendments that the House took up on the Farm Bill yesterday: 

·         Rep. Chabot (R-OH) offered an amendment to repeal the Market Access Program, a corporate-welfare subsidy for agri-businesses. It failed, 98-322.
·         Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) offered an amendment to allow food stamp recipients to use food stamps to buy “personal hygiene” products. It failed, 123-297.
·         Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) offered an amendment that would eliminate a wasteful “healthy food financing initiative.”  It failed, 194-232.
·         Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) offered an amendment that would eliminate a federal government handout to local farmers’ markets.  It failed, 156-269.
·         Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY) offered an amendment that would strike a protectionist clause from the bill that would have blocked olive oil imports.  It passed 343-81.
·         Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) offered an amendment that would block the imposition of a tax on Christmas trees (Seriously). It failed, 197-227.
·         Rep. Trey Radel (R-FL) offered an amendment to repeal the so-called National Sheep Industry Improvement Center. It passed, 235-192.
·         Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) offered an amendment to make modest reforms to the sugar subsidy program. It failed, 206-221.
·         Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) offered an amendment that would cut an additional $11 billion in the food stamp program by imposing additional work requirements.  It failed, 175-250.

The Chabot, Radel, and Pitts amendments were all publicly supported by the Club for Growth
and we may include some of the above in our 2013 Congressional scorecard as well. Obviously, we also opposed final passage of the trillion dollar Farm and Food Stamp bill, which failed, 195-234.   

I thought it would be interesting for you to learn that 35 members of Congress took the pro-growth position on all ten of those votes. Twenty-one (60%) of those were endorsed by the Club for Growth PAC in their campaigns for Congress.

1.
       Justin Amash (MI)
2.       Michele Bachmann (MN)
3.       Paul Broun (GA)
4.       Steve Chabot (R-OH)
5.       Tom Cotton (AR)
6.       Ron DeSantis (FL)
7.       Jeff Duncan (SC)
8.       Trent Franks (AZ)
9.       Scott Garrett (NJ)
10.   Louie Gohmert (TX)
11.   Tom Graves (GA)
12.   Jeb Hensarling (TX)
13.   Tim Huelskamp (KS)
14.   Jim Jordan (OH)
15.   Thomas Massie (KY)
16.   Tom McClintock (CA)
17.   Mick Mulvaney (SC)
18.   Mike Pompeo (KS)
19.   Keith Rothfus (PA)
20.   Matt Salmon (AZ)
21.   David Schweikert (AZ) 

The other fourteen non-PAC endorsed members who voted correctly on all ten of those votes were:

1.
       Jim Bridenstine (OK)
2.       John Duncan (TN)
3.       Trey Gowdy (SC)
4.       Scott Perry (PA)
5.       Joe Pitts (PA)
6.       Tom Price (GA)
7.       Scott Rigell (VA)
8.       Ed Royce (CA)
9.       Paul Ryan (WI)
10.   Mark Sanford (SC)
11.   Jim Sensenbrenner (WI)
12.   Bill Shuster (PA)
13.   Marlin Stutzman (IN)
14.   Brad Wenstrup (OH)

We’re proud of our record of helping to send pro-growth fighters to Washington. Yesterday, many of them obviously made a large impact.