By MEGHAN GREBNER
Brownfield Ag Network
It remains unclear who will become the next Speaker of the U.S. House, but Kam Quarles CEO of the National Potato Council says it needs to happen quickly.
He says the House needs to get back to work. “With a government shutdown, the farm bill, all of these things, the pain is going to be magnified the longer we put this stuff off and the longer this drama is able to overhang this pretty vital institution,” he says.
Quarles tells Brownfield this week’s actions send a very clear message, “That working across the aisle is grounds for removal.”
He says that could be a challenge for big spending bills that still need to be tackled, like funding the government and the 2023 Farm Bill.
“Those are going to be pieces of legislation that a new Speaker has got to think long and hard about if they want to get them across the House floor and still keep their job,” he says. “I think everybody’s grappling with how to thread that needle. It’s a very chaotic time.”
Quarles says he’s still optimistic a farm bill can happen soon, and the last thing agriculture and rural America needs is for Congress to get in a cycle of extensions. “And we’re sitting here 10 years from now talking about tools that were created in the 2018 Farm Bill to serve an agriculture industry in 2033 that is simply vastly different than the one that our agricultural policy was designed for,” he says. “That is a mess.”
And until the U.S. House selects a new Speaker, it is at a stalemate.
Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) is the House speaker pro tem until a replacement for McCarthy wins a majority of members’ votes.