New York Times: House Farm Bill Collapses Amid Republican Disarray
By Glenn Thrush and Thomas Kaplan
May 18, 2018
WASHINGTON — The House, in a striking display of Republican division, rejected a massive farm bill on Friday that would have imposed strict new work requirements on beneficiaries of federal food aid while continuing farm subsidies popular with rural voters.
The twice-a-decade farm policy measure failed on a 213-to-198 vote, after a key bloc of conservatives rebuked Speaker Paul D. Ryan over his refusal to schedule an immediate vote on a restrictive immigration bill sponsored by the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia.
Mr. Ryan and Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, failed to head off the revolt after frenetic negotiations with members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus. Mr. Ryan told colleagues he refused to be held hostage by the upstarts, then gambled that he would be able to find enough votes to pass the legislation, despite unified Democratic opposition.
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