By Richard E. Cohen, CQ Staff

Speaker John A. Boehner is resisting a floor debate on a bedrock bill to renew nutrition and agriculture programs, amid concerns that it will spotlight divisions among Republicans and divert attention from the majority’s pre-election agenda.

But some Republicans, including Agriculture Chairman Frank D. Lucas of Oklahoma, are pushing back and pressing leaders to bring the measure (HR 6083) to the floor in order to demonstrate that Republicans can govern. Some GOP panel members have suggested that leaders send the bill directly to conference with the Senate, which passed its version (S 3240) with bipartisan support on June 21.

Boehner and his allies want to avoid putting his fractious conference on display before the election, particularly because it remains uncertain whether enough Republicans will vote to pass a bill that has drawn Democratic opposition for its $35 billion in cuts from nutrition and farm programs, compared with the $23 billion in overall cuts across a decade included in the Senate’s version.

House leaders have made no secret of their July game plan, designed to feature unifying issues such as extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts (PL 107-16, PL 108-27), getting rid of federal regulations and avoiding deep Pentagon spending cuts.

“I don’t see how you square the circle,” a senior leadership aide said about the possibility of adding the farm bill to the House’s pre-set legislative agenda this month. The current authorization of farm programs expires Sept. 30.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joined those who are pressing House leaders to take up the measure, a posture that only draws attention to the GOP’s intraparty conflicts, which go beyond whether to debate the bill. Vilsack said in a radio interview July 12 that failure to debate the measure “sends a very strong message to folks in rural communities about what the priorities are in Congress.”

Boehner, R-Ohio, signaled that he was aware of the potential political fallout from not taking up the bill, and he was careful not to offend Agriculture Committee lawmakers, many of whom represent rural districts in battleground states such as his own. He praised the committee’s efforts July 12 even as he expressed reservations about the bill, including his concern that it would make the existing “Soviet-style dairy program” worse.

The panel approved the measure earlier that day, after a marathon session. It would cut, over a decade, $16.1 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the food stamps program and now government’s largest nutrition program. But conservative Republicans contend that the bill falls far short of the spending targets outlined in the party’s fiscal 2013 budget resolution (H Con Res 112) and fails to overhaul farm programs and rein in spending.

Although the Speaker has not publicly closed the door on House action before the elections, numerous factors make it highly unlikely the House will take up the measure before Congress departs for its monthlong August break.

Tensions Redux?

Intraparty divisions over the farm bill mirror those that surfaced earlier this year, during a protracted House battle over the renewal of surface transportation programs, a measure Congress had easily passed in the past. Boehner made revamping transportation programs his signature initiative last year, only to face fierce GOP divisions that ultimately forced the House to pass a stripped-down measure that weakened its hand in negotiations with the Senate. The talks finally produced the $120 billion, two-year reauthorization (PL 112-141) that President Obama signed July 6.

The dynamics in play over the farm bill have renewed the House GOP’s internal struggle over how deeply to cut federal spending, with conservatives calling for steeper cuts than some Republicans can abide. This conflict is likely to resurface only when House leaders have to pass a stopgap fiscal 2013 continuing resolution to keep the government running after Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, a close Boehner ally, is among those who are hesitant to stir party divisions with a debate over farm programs. “Everyone is for a farm bill, in theory. But there is controversy on many specifics,” Tiberi said.