House Ag chairman: No firm date for work on farm bill

There is no firm date so far to start crafting a new U.S. farm bill, Frank Lucas, the head of the House Agriculture Committee, said on Wednesday.

Lucas said Congress still needs to work out broader fiscal issues, which will ultimately determine how broad and deep the cuts to agriculture spending might have to be.

He declined to talk about what might be changed in this year's attempt at farm legislation from the 2012 House version, which included $35 billion in cuts over ten years, including $16 billion in cuts to food stamps.

The House and Senate failed to pass a new five-year farm billion in 2012 but instead engineered a one-year extension to the now-expired law that will run until Sept. 30. (Reporting By Charles Abbott, writing by Ros Krasny)

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