U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., foreground left, shares a laugh with Colquitt County farmer Louie Perry, foreground right, during an event Friday at Colquitt County Farm Bureau.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — Speaking at the Colquitt County Farm Bureau Friday, U.S. Sen. David Perdue told how senior Sen. Johnny Isakson advised him when he first took office.

“He said, ‘David, if you want to get re-elected, don’t ever vote against a farm bill!’” Perdue said.

But the senator told about 50 farmers gathered at the meeting that he is considering doing just that.

Perdue, who sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee, had a hand in crafting the bill, but when it left his committee it had two problems that he struggled over. He said he was assured they’d be ironed out in a conference committee between House and Senate representatives, but members of that conference committee are providing little information about their progress. Perdue indicated that what he’d heard so far makes him think those two problems remain.

Every farm bill has two main parts — one governs agriculture and the other deals with food subsidies like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP. Perdue said he has one problem with each of those parts.

First, the agriculture provisions define a worker in a farming operation in a way that the senator doesn’t agree with.

Both of Perdue’s parents were teachers, but they operated a small farm as well. His mother did the books for the operation, he said, but under the farm bill as proposed, she would not have been considered a worker on the farm.

On the food subsidy side, there is a current requirement for able-bodied adults ages 18-49 to work, and there are exemptions, such as for taking care of a young child. Perdue favors increasing the age limits to 18-59 and reworking some of the exemptions — altogether pushing more people into the work force.

The changes would put the farm bill in line with work requirements of the 1996 farm bill, he said.

Perdue said he expects to have a farm bill to vote on sometime in October.

“We’ve got to get Kavanaugh out of the way,” he said, referring to confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.