Leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee said they are working on a bipartisan farm bill, in contrast to the Republican-written bill awaiting a vote in the House, but offered no suggestion on Tuesday as to when it will be ready. A month ago, Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts warned Congress must move briskly on a bill this spring or forfeit passage this year.
“We are taking our time to get it right, within our budget requests,” said Roberts, when asked if he would present a farm bill in May. “We don’t have any major problems. It’s just agreeing on things we think we need to move forward with.”
Farm groups and their allies in Congress say timely enactment of the new farm law is vital because of the prolonged slump in farm income and concern about trade turmoil. Yet doubts persist as to whether successful legislation is possible in the polarized politics of the Trump era and early emergence of election-year tensions on Capitol Hill.
“Step by step by step,” said Michigan Sen Debbie Stabenow, the senior Democrat on the Agriculture Committee in reponse to questions about development of the farm bill. “We’d like to” produce the bill in May, she said. “At this point, I don’t have anything specific to report. But we certainly would like to.”
The Republican-controlled House might debate its version of the farm bill during the week of May 7 or the following week, two Democratic staffers told Bloomberg. Timing would depend on the vote outlook. The bill was approved on a party-line vote in committee last week. Republicans hold a 237-143 advantage in the House, so they would near near-unanimous support by their members to be sure of passage.
Written by House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway, the bill would require up to 9 million “work capable” adults to work at least 20 hours a week to receive SNAP benefits or spend an equal amount of time in job training or workfare programs. States would get $1 billion a year to pay for the programs. The bill aligns with President Trump’s drive for new or stronger work rules for welfare programs. Democrats say the bill poses unworkable paperwork requirements to prove compliance with the 20-hour hurdle and provides too little money—an estimated $30 per person per month—to run a high-quality training program.
“Conaway’s going to have to re-write his bill or it’s never going to pass the House,” said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. Conaway will have to alter the bill to win over hard-line conservative Republicans or to placate Democrats who opposed his SNAP overhaul from the start, Grassley told reporters, “or make sure he can get 218 votes,” the simple majority needed to pass a bill in the House, which has 435 members at full strength.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, asked Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to use his influence with House Republicans to moderate the farm bill. “I am just so concerned about the divide over there,” Klobuchar said during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing. North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heitkamp asked where the administration stood on the House farm bill and New York state Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand said “paperwork requirements are stupid” if they are so complicated that they disqualify the working poor from SNAP.
“Most people on SNAP already are working,” said Gillibrand.
Roberts and Stabenow have said repeatedly they are not interested in a sweeping overhaul of SNAP like that pursued by Conaway, long a proponent of work rules.