Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE 5/16/18

The House will take up the farm bill, H.R. 2 (115), today and debate 20 amendments, according to a notice from Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

It's just the beginning of what promises to be a busy, multiday affair. The debate is likely to resume Thursday, when a litany of other amendments will be offered to the bill. But first, the House Rules Committee has to duke out which ones will be allowed during another meeting today at 3 p.m. The committee also met Tuesday evening to set the stage for today's floor action, yours truly reported.

The amendments that could sink the bill: The fate of more contentious proposals — like capping crop insurance premium subsidies, ending production limits in the sugar program and banning sugary drinks from SNAP — could be decided at this afternoon's House Rules Committee meeting. If attached to the farm bill, many of these could derail support for it, even as it already is expected to rely on mostly GOP votes to pass the House.

On the agenda today: Many of the 20 amendments to be debated on the House floor today are not too controversial. For instance, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) will offer a proposal that would allow Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to be spent on multivitamins, while Reps. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) and Michael Burgess (R-Texas) want the Government Accountability Office to determine whether data on which items SNAP recipients are purchasing can be collected under current reporting requirements.
Amendments that aim to expedite U.S. Forest Service wildfire prevention activities and streamline the agency's application process for constructing broadband infrastructure on federal land also made the cut.

Freedom Caucus ties farm bill support to immigration: Meanwhile, Freedom Caucus members are threatening to withhold support unless there is a roll call on separate legislation pertaining to DREAMers — a conservative immigration measure that even GOP leaders say won't pass in its current form, report POLITICO's Liz Crampton and Rachael Bade. The caucus discussed that strategy in a closed-door meeting Tuesday night, just hours after the Republican Study Committee released a long list of concerns with the farm bill.

"Since [leadership] is whipping the farm bill very hard for a vote this week, we believe it's probably time to go ahead and call the question on the [House Judiciary Chairman Bob] Goodlatte bill as well," House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said, referring to the immigration text. "That was a topic of discussion on what would get people to 'yes' on the farm bill."
Meadows didn't say how many members are threatening to withhold their support, but said that "obviously the only leverage would be if it moved a significant number of yes votes so that's what we're checking with all of our members to do."

House Ag Chairman Mike Conaway told reporters Tuesday night that he's still working on rounding up enough votes for the bill.