Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE 5/7/18

House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway's team was busy whipping votes for H.R. 2 (115) during the recess. This is a big week for Conaway to line up support for the House farm bill, if he is to keep his plan of bringing it to the floor next week. 

But his task in securing support within the House GOP conference - and, particularly, from members of the hardline conservative Freedom Caucus - was made that much more difficult after conservative groups like Heritage Action and Americans for Prosperity piled on against the measure last week.

No fewer than 16 conservative and free-market groups went public with opposition to the measure because of dissatisfaction with its farm policy provisions, especially its lack of cutbacks to subsidy programs, Pro's John Lauinger writes.

The 'clear and present danger': In a statement to POLITICO, House Agriculture ranking member Collin Peterson cited "the gaggle of conservative groups lined up in opposition to this bill" as evidence that "the clear and present danger to the farm bill comes from Republicans, not from Democrats." 

He also pointed to the fiscal 2019 budget blueprint that the 154-member conservative Republican Study Committee released recently that called for deep cuts to farm bill programs.

"I've suggested to my colleagues that we don't offer any amendments," Peterson added, referring to House Democrats. "We're ready to take a step back, sit down and do this the right way, but the Republicans clearly have some deeper divisions to contend with."

On Friday, the House Ag Committee also filed its report on the farm bill, which includes insights on the wide-ranging legislation, dissenting views from committee Democrats, and perspectives related to CBO's cost estimate of the bill.