Farm bills are typically a marriage of farm support and public nutrition programs, but Republicans and Democrats bring different priorities to the undertaking, said associate professor Jonathan Coppess of the University of Illinois. The 12 Democrats on the Senate Agriculture Committee represent far more people and more SNAP recipients than do the 11 Republicans, who are from states with more farms and federal payments to farms, wrote Coppess at the farmdoc daily blog.
“Much about a farm bill comes down to the politics between federal payments to farmers and federal payments to low-income persons and households for the purchase of food,” said Coppess. “While all senators represent farmers and states that receive farm program benefits, as well as SNAP participants and benefits, the differences break along party lines.”
As examples, Coppess said, the 2022 Census indicated that Democrats on the committee come from states with 101 million people and Republicans from states with 32 million people. States represented by Republicans got $3.9 billion in farm payments while states with Democratic senators received $2.1 billion, according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Democrats represented 80 percent of SNAP recipients in the 22 states with senators on the committee.