Farm Law Rejection Another Embarrassment for Boehner

By Roxana Tiron, Derek Wallbank and Alan Bjerga - Jun 20, 2013
House Speaker John Boehner lost support from more than one-fourth of his Republican colleagues as the chamber rejected a $939 billion agricultural-policy bill, the latest in a series of embarrassments handed to him by his own party.

Sixty-two Republicans joined Democrats in the 195-234 defeat of the measure yesterday. Many members of the speaker’s party opposed the legislation’s crop-subsidy provisions while Democrats were displeased over cuts to the food-stamp program.

The vote shows how difficult it will be for Boehner to gain passage of other legislative initiatives including an immigration law rewrite, raising the nation’s debt limit and changing the tax system. Republicans control the House 234-201.

“It is an embarrassment for the entire Republican conference,” Republican strategist John Feehery said in an interview yesterday. “They need to figure out how to legislate this year. If they don’t, it doesn’t bode well for immigration or fiscal negotiations.”

The rejection of the farm bill is the latest of several legislative defeats for Boehner. In February 2011, Republicans were seven votes short of extending provisions of the Patriot Act; in September 2011 a temporary spending bill failed when more than 40 Republicans voted against it.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-21/farm-law-rejection-another-embarrassment-for-boehner.html