[W]ASHINGTON — A rift within the House Republican caucus over immigration tanked a major agriculture bill on Friday.
The House failed to pass the farm bill, a key piece of legislation that addresses federal agriculture programs.
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who voted against the bill, said the failure of the legislation on the floor is “very damaging” to Republican leadership. But he also said he is not optimistic that it will lead to any collaboration to get Democratic minority support for the legislation
“What I’ve seen in the past, the way they get to 218 is to make a bad bill even worse,” Welch said.
Democrats have been uniformly opposed to the legislation, objecting to a provision that would impose new work requirements on recipients of the supplemental nutrition assistance program, also known as SNAP, or food stamps.
The measure floundered when a faction within the Republican caucus pushed to advance a controversial immigration proposal before taking up the farm bill.
Thirty Republicans voted against the bill. Without any Democratic votes, the bill did not have sufficient support to pass.
During a sequence of other votes ahead of the final vote on the farm bill at noon on Friday, members of Republican leadership huddled with other members in discussions on the House floor.
When the result of the vote was announced — 193 in favor, 213 opposed — a cheer went up from the Democratic side of the chamber.
“I think (House Speaker) Paul Ryan overreached,” Welch said in an interview after the vote.
Ryan apparently brought the bill to the floor without having secured sufficient votes for it, a “cardinal sin around here,” Welch said.
“It’s really bad for the majority party to be unable to pass a major bill,” he said.
But he was clear that he did not see the situation as a positive one.
“I take no joy in this,” he said.
Welch lamented the partisan division on a piece of legislation on which Democrats and Republicans have historically collaborated.
“Farm bills in the past have been a place where there was conflict and ultimately cooperation,” he said.
In addition to the changes to the food security benefit in the bill, Welch objects to a slew of other provisions in the package.
The vote Friday exposed the divisions within the Republican majority.
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the so-called Freedom Caucus who voted against the bill, said outside of the House chamber after the vote that the caucus supports the content of the farm bill.
However, he said, the caucus members have been asking leadership to move forward with immigration legislation for months, to no avail.
“Look, you’re asked to put up a vote now for a promise in the future that is somewhat vague,” Perry said. “And unfortunately too many of our members have been left standing at the altar too many times with those kind of promises and they’re not willing to commit to it.”
The result frustrated some Republicans, who said that a deal had been reached with the Freedom Caucus guaranteeing a vote on immigration in June.
“I’m certainly disappointed that the farm bill came down,” Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., said. “And I’m disappointed in some colleagues that asked for a concession, got the concession, and then took down the bill anyway.”
Denham has been involved in a procedural maneuver to get legislation to the floor that would enact protections for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children.
President Donald Trump ended a program in September that offered temporary work status for eligible individuals.
Welch signed onto the petition Friday, which would force a debate on fixes for the program on the floor. Several Republicans have joined most Democrats in signing on, putting the measure within close range of the 218 needed.
Denham said he saw a potential for more Republicans to sign on in the wake of Friday’s vote.
