In a procedural vote, senators indicated strong support on Monday for the bipartisan farm bill written by Senate Agriculture Committee leaders, voting 89-3 to open debate on the $87-billion-a-year legislation that makes few changes to food stamps or farm subsidies. The Senate bill stands in stark contrast to the House Republican-written welfare-reform-in-a-farm-bill legislation, which would broaden and toughen work requirements for 7 million or more people on SNAP.
The so-called cloture vote served as a test of Senate backing for the farm bill. Senators could pass the bill before the end of this week. That would allow the start of negotiations with the House over a final version of the bill.
Three amendments may be offered in the Senate to alter crop subsidy and crop insurance rules. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley wants a “hard” cap of $125,000 a year on farm subsidies and to limit them to farmers, their spouses, and one manager per farm. Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin would require farmers with more than $700,000 in annual adjusted gross income to pay half of the cost of crop insurance; farmers now pay an average of 38 percent. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania would limit farmers to $125,000 a year in premium subsidies for crop insurance.