N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8 8 POTATO GROWER Will the Lame Duck Fly? The new 2019 fiscal began on Monday, October 1st. It also was the date that the 2014 Farm Bill expired. Unfortunately, neither a new Farm Bill or the Agriculture Appropriations Bill for FY19 was in place on that date. Now the big question is whether a “lame duck” session of Congress immediately following the November elections will provide a window to pass them and deliver vital federal resources for the potato industry? On the bright side, there has been some extremely strong work done at the committee level in both the House and Senate on priorities for our industry. Now those commit- tee-approved bills need to cross the finish line, so producers and their businesses can move forward with certainty. In the House Agriculture Appropriations Bill, a bipartisan coalition of members led by Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) and Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) included a provi- sion preventing USDA from limiting potato access to the school breakfast program. Additionally, both the Senate and House include the high- est level of spending ever for NIFA Potato Breeding Research Program. Now, these beneficial provisions need to be merged together, passed and signed by the President. Concurrently, the draft Farm Bill in the House includes several regulato- ry reform provisions including a fix to the "NPDES" permitting issue, a reauthorization of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act and Endangered Species Act reforms. The Senate Farm Bill ensures that the vital Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops (TASC) program is fully funded and operated efficient- ly. It also provides full funding for the Specialty Crop Research Initiative. Before the election, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway indicated that "I can't bring back a bill that gets more Democratic votes than Republican votes. I'm not going to do that." If this position holds, it becomes very difficult to see a new Farm Bill become law as the House version passed with one vote to spare (213- 211) with no Democratic support, while the bipartisan Senate version passed 86-11. We are hopeful that the two sides will find a path for- ward, once the pressure of the November elections is relieved and NPC Mes sage by Kam Quarles NPC Vice President of Public Policy