House Accepts HR 2642 Conference Report

This morning the House accepted the revised language for HR 2642, the the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, found in the Conference Report by a bipartisan vote of 251 – 166. This was bipartisan in the modern term of the word; it was a vote by the moderates of both parties that carried the day.

As I noted yesterday the chemical safety and security measures in the original bill are there no longer. The closest we got was some funding for some existing minor biosecurity programs.

It will be interesting to see if the leadership in the Senate can broker the same sort of bipartisan middle ground over the bomb-throwers of both parties.