No matter who is Speaker of the House, Congress needs to act on Ukraine, Israel, farm bill

The list of urgent issues we heard were upended by the U.S. House of Representatives ousting Speaker Kevin McCarthy was sudden, large, and terrifying. Aid to Ukraine. Action as war erupts between Israel and Hamas. Funding the government. All now hostage, we were told, to a new level of dysfunction while U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, the ongoing frontrunner, wrangles the votes in hopes of becoming Speaker. (Scalise withdrew late last week after failing to secure enough support. A vote is expected Tuesday on the House floor on Rep. Jim Jordan's bid to become speaker.)

Each of those issues is important to debate — whoever is leading Congress, and whatever direction they go on those policies. But all of this also completely misses the point.

While not having a Speaker to move the agenda forward on the floor of the House was certainly a new barrier, it's not the real reason big problems aren’t being solved in Congress—just the latest excuse, and a temporary one at that.

In addition, the list of big problems that need to be addressed is anything but sudden, is actually much longer than the one we're hearing about now, and has a lot more to do with rural states like Wisconsin than you would know from national headlines.

Farm bill essential to agricultural states like Wisconsin

Exhibit A: the Farm Bill. This legislation authorizes a mountain of programs impacting our entire food supply. Some love it and some hate it. But everyone should care about seeing much more done on this legislation, well before the temporary House Speaker drama.

The people who love the farm bill—many farmers (although you can get various opinions on that), agribusinesses, and rural states—depend upon it to know how agriculture markets will work. There are myriad programs farmers tap in the event of inclement weather or other issues outside their control, while they continue to contend with rising prices of materials needed for production.

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And that’s only around 20 percent of the legislation. The other 80 percent funds food programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (a priority for many urban states and advocates for low-income families; pairing ag and food assistance traditionally forced Republicans and Democrats to the table).

But let’s say you don’t like the farm bill. Some fiscal conservatives, for example, decry the amount of ag spending and distortions to the market. Many more of them see a bigger target in the more costly food assistance programs, and some farmers join them, wishing the farm bill dealt more with farm policy and less policy outside agriculture. Progressives and fiscal conservatives alike, meantime, criticize the amount of farm spending that goes to the very biggest operators—or even people who aren’t farmers—over small farms.

Everyone, champion and critic alike, should want action sooner. It’s the only road to reform. Typically the farm bill runs late, leading to a tweaked mish-mash of policies, rather than what can happen with unglamorous, deliberate legislating—deeper examination of arcane issues, painstaking negotiations over complicated policy, and votes with a chance at bipartisan consensus. This year is no exception. Stephanie Mercier, an economist and senior policy adviser to the Farm Journal Foundation, noted the House and Senate agriculture committees haven’t released public versions of a bill, even though the last farm bill expired Oct. 1.

The consequences are coming. Without a new farm bill, prior programs and spending continue, which means new programs or reforms needed languish, and bad policy thrives. And, by January, Mercier said, a cascade of prior permanent laws will begin to have their impact—including programs, spending, and regulations dating back to the Depression. That’s one way for farm policy to seize national headlines.

New Speaker of the House must act on issues not on CNN

And this is just one piece of legislation, with bills affecting everything from the military to air travel also struggling. The reasons none of this is happening run deep. Disagreement between Republicans controlling the House and Democrats controlling the Senate, yes. But also the failure of Congress to act through “regular order” where committees hammer out legislation with bipartisan consensus, a media environment that rewards outrage over real reform, and on and on.

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So yes, America needs a Speaker of the House to help deal with crises around the globe. But we also need Congress to deal with policy issues here at home that are unlikely to make it on CNN.

Brian Reisinger grew up on a family farm in Sauk County. He contributes in-depth columns and videos for the Ideas Lab at the Journal Sentinel. Reisinger works in public affairs consulting for Wisconsin-based Platform Communications. Previously, he worked on the U.S. Senate campaigns of Republicans Lamar Alexander and Ron Johnson, as well as Scott Walker's for governor. He splits his time between a small town in northern California near his wife’s family, and his family’s farm here in Wisconsin.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Whether Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan are Speaker, they must act fast