When House and Senate negotiators sit down to reconcile differences between legislation, as the 56 farm bill conferees are scheduled to do on Wednesday, there are few formal rules to govern their work. “It is most common that a conference committee holds a single public meeting, sometimes for members to offer opening statements only,” says one guide. Illinois Rep. Ed Madigan probably set the record for brevity with an opening statement of four words on the 1990 farm bill: “Let the games begin.”
Opening statements are certain for the meeting on Wednesday given the desire of negotiators to express their stark disagreements over the 2018 farm bill. Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts has said he hopes to present a draft of a farm bill compromise. Roberts will serve as chairman of the conference committee. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, was less optimistic of legislative action. The 2014 farm law expires on Sept. 30, creating an informal deadline for action although major provisions such as food stamps and crop insurance would remain in effect and others would remain in operation for months.
SNAP is the headline dispute. The Senate bill generally keeps the current program; the GOP-written House farm bill would require an estimated 7 million “work capable” adults aged 18-59 to work at least 20 hours a week or spend an equal amount of time in job training or workfare to be eligible for SNAP. At present, adults are required to register for work and accept an appropriate job if offered.
Some 110 House Democrats signed a letter opposing the GOP’s work requirements as “a solution in search of a problem that does not exist.” Republicans say their plan would propel low-income workers to employment and self-sufficiency. Ahead of the House-Senate meeting, “we have no idea what will happen,” Ellen Vollinger of the anti-hunger Food Research and Action Center told the CT Mirror.