The leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee are treading a surprisingly tortuous path to a bipartisan farm bill that would make no major changes in food stamps, farm supports or crop insurance. They are expected to unveil their package this month, a major advance toward enacting a farm bill before the 2014 law expires on Sept. 30.
Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts told a Kansas farm conference last week that the Senate might vote on its farm bill by the middle of June. Roberts and the senior Democrat on the Senate committee, Debbie Stabenow, have collaborated behind the scenes for months on their 2018 farm bill. They have ruled out in public the sweeping changes in SNAP proposed by House Republicans — “welfare reform in the farm bill,” as Roberts described it. The House plan of stricter work requirements and tougher eligibility standards for SNAP has limited appeal in the Senate, he said.
“We would not have the votes to pass the farm bill in the Senate without SNAP. That is the key issue for many, many Democrats,” said Roberts.
Republican and Democratic staff workers are believed to be in final negotiations, including work over the past weekend, on the contents of the Senate bill. Farm bills typically run hundreds of pages and are panoramic in coverage, touching on international food aid, ag research, rural development, forestry, export promotion as well as farm supports and food stamps, so it takes time to cover all the details. Three-fourths of farm bill spending goes to food stamps.
The House defeated its GOP-drafted farm bill, 198-213, in a roll-of-the-dice vote called by Republican leaders. Democrats voted solidly against the bill, as expected. Thirty Republicans, half of them hardline conservatives, cast the deciding votes against the bill, with conservatives using the farm bill as leverage to get a vote on immigration controls. The House is scheduled to try again on the farm bill by June 22.
By contrast, the Senate appears to be an open road for the farm bill. Both parties see political advantage to moving on the bill. “I think that’s the magic on the Senate side,” said Ferd Hoefner of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
The farm bill could be one of the few pieces of major legislation passed by Congress in an election year. A handful of vulnerable Democratic senators are from farm states.