Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 11/9/18

Congress comes back to town next week with House and Senate agriculture leaders pledging action on the farm bill in the lame-duck session. Hanging over negotiations is the question of just how dug in Trump is on stricter SNAP work requirements.

Trump on Wednesday blamed Democrats again for delaying the farm bill over opposition to stronger work requirements, and reiterated that he wants "work rules" in the bill — a demand that some interpreted as essentially a veto threat.

Betting on a bluff: For now, many food and ag lobbyists are shrugging off Trump's latest comments. They're betting he wouldn't actually veto a farm bill if it doesn't include new work requirements akin to those proposed in the House measure, H.R. 2 (115), which must be dropped for a final bill to have any chance of clearing the Senate.

"From President Trump's own standpoint, a threat to refuse to accept the bill if it doesn't contain the House SNAP provisions doesn't compute," said Bob Greenstein, founder and president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank that works on SNAP policy. "If he refuses to accept such a bill, the farm bill will die in the lame duck, and the next Congress — with a Democratic House — will start over, with the result that the final bill will be even less to his liking."

Veto virgin: Trump so far has not vetoed any bills. Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush each issued 12 during their tenure. It's worth noting that, back in June, the White House issued a statement of administration policy criticizing the Senate farm bill, S. 3042 (115), for not strengthening SNAP work requirements for able-bodied adults, but stopped short of threatening a veto.

History lesson: The last time a farm bill was vetoed was in 2008 when Bush rejected the package — not once, but twice! — because he thought it was fiscally irresponsible and didn't rein in subsidies to wealthy farmers. Congress overrode the veto (twice) with an overwhelming bipartisan majority.

In 1995, President Bill Clinton vetoed a budget reconciliation package that included the first version of what later became the 1996 farm bill, per the Congressional Research Service, but that move wasn't due to opposition to the farm bill, specifically. President Dwight Eisenhower also vetoed a farm bill in 1956.

Number of the day: There have been 2,574 presidential vetoes since 1789. FDR issued 635!