The 118th Congress was limping to the finish line as the week before Christmas wound down, with lawmakers working to approve three months of patchwork funding to avoid a government shutdown. The new Congress begins its work Jan. 3.
When the members of the 118th first convened in 2023, their agenda included a new five-year farm bill, with the 2018 version due for renewal. Two years seemed like it would be enough time even for a fractured legislature to cobble together the bill, which sets important policies not just for the agriculture industry but also for anti-hunger efforts and renewable energy interests.
Alas, the House and Senate instead agreed on fewer than half as many laws as any other Congress in decades, according to States Newsroom , and no farm bill was among them. The only numerical overperformance was in the number of votes taken to select speakers of the House.
If lawmakers and Donald Trump’s new administration want to demonstrate that they can competently govern for the masses, instead of posturing for the benefit of niche audiences, a great way would be to move the overdue farm bill to the top of their list for the first half of 2025.