Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE 6/27/18

Debate over amendments to the farm bill will kick off this morning, starting with Sen. John Thune's (R-S.D.) bid to revamp the Conservation Reserve Program. Leading up to the formal debate, ag leaders continued to negotiate which amendments will make it to the floor, either as standalone proposals or part of a manager's package. As of Tuesday evening, it was unclear what made the cut. Remember, Pros can check out this deep dive of what to expect on the amendment front here.

"We've got a lot of good bipartisan amendments that have been proposed and we'd like to get brought up and voted on," Agriculture Committee ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said Tuesday afternoon. "We're just at the moment looking at the universe of amendments."

Tariff roadblock? Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) threw a potential bomb into the bill's pathway Tuesday, planning to use it as a home for his legislation to temper the president's power to impose tariffs for national security reasons. Written jointly with Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), the proposal would be making a comeback — Corker tried to attach it to a defense bill but was rebuffed partly by a procedural rule.

GOP leadership doesn't want to confront President Donald Trump so directly, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's chief deputy said he'd prefer not to tar the farm bill with such a contentious debate, reports POLITICO's Burgess Everett. Senate ag leaders themselves balked at the possibility of the amendment getting tacked onto the bill: Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said he'd rather it be considered as a standalone bill in the Finance Committee and Stabenow warned it would divide the Senate.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he doesn't support Corker's amendment but agrees that trade laws need to be reviewed. But anything that comes out of that review should impact future action, not what the president is doing immediately.

"The number one responsibility of the federal government is national security, and the president is commander in chief," Grassley said. "In regard to national security, our trade laws ought to have a little more leeway, but I still think [there is] too much leeway right now."

Business backing: A leading coalition of business groups, including many at the local and state level vulnerable to retaliatory tariffs, urged Congress to pass the legislation. The letter, signed by some 270 groups, argues "the President's unrestricted use of section 232 to impose tariffs may not be in the national interest." The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the National Foreign Trade Council back the effort.