Farm bill negotiators spoke smilingly of comity and compromise while budging not an inch on major issues such as SNAP work requirements on Wednesday during their first, and possibly last, public meeting. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, after wryly saying, “I can’t remember the last time I appointed myself to a conference,” told his fellow negotiators that if they fail to enact the farm bill before the Sept. 30 expiration of the current law, it will be “a bipartisan failure of extraordinary notice to our farmers and ranchers.”
President Trump called for stronger SNAP work requirements in the bill. “The Trump Economy is booming with help of House and Senate GOP. #FarmBill with SNAP work requirements will bolster farmers and get America back to work. Pass the Farm Bill with SNAP work requirements!” he tweeted. He delivered the same message during a meeting with GOP congressional leaders: “I also want to make sure we pass a farm bill, which is moving along nicely, before the end of the month to help our great farmers. I strongly support the commonsense work requirements and the food stamps in the farm bill.” Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order for new and stronger work requirements for welfare.
While SNAP is the salient issue, the House and Senate disagree on land stewardship and on farm subsidy rules. The GOP-written House farm bill would require an estimated 7 million “work-capable” adults ages 18 to 59 to work at least 20 hours a week or spend equivalent time in job training or workfare to qualify for food stamps. It also would tighten SNAP eligibility rules. The combined effect would be a 2 million-person reduction in enrollment.
“Importantly, these cuts do not have support in the Senate — and do not even have strong consensus in the House,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee. SNAP enrollment is declining in tandem with economic growth, she said, so there is no need for the “massive eligibility changes” or “unnecessary paperwork burdens” proposed by the House. The Senate farm bill would encourage administrative efficiency by state agencies that run SNAP but leave the rest of the program alone.
House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway, who called for more money for farm subsidies, said compromise on the farm bill was within reach. “Even on SNAP, I have repeatedly stressed that we are willing and able to come to consensus with the Senate.” However, a string of House Republicans continue to insist that more stringent work requirements are the proper choice.
“Frankly, a lot of compromise remains to be done,” said Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts, who is the leader of the 56 House and Senate negotiators. In an opening statement, he said, “Getting a farm bill done is paramount to many other issues and concerns.”
Conaway declined to provide details to reporters of a SNAP “alternative” that he circulated among the “big four” negotiators — the Republican chairs and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees — who ultimately resolve farm bill differences. Rep. Collin Peterson, the senior Democrat on House Agriculture, responded, “Ask the chairman” when asked where there was compromise between the House and Senate. “We haven’t seen anything bipartisan,” said a Stabenow aide when asked about the Conaway alternative.
After the three-hour public session, the “big four” met privately on Wednesday afternoon. They have conferred regularly for weeks. “We’ve got about a week to get this done,” said Conaway. The House and Senate are scheduled to meet no more than a dozen days before the end of the month.
The Republican-controlled House passed the GOP-drafted farm bill on its second try by a two-vote margin, 213-211, with Republicans providing all the votes in favor. By contrast, senators passed their farm bill 86-11, after they rejected, by a 2-to-1 margin, a work-requirement amendment that mirrored the House proposal. Senators have repeatedly pointed to the vote margins to suggest that they have greater bargaining leverage on the final version of the bill than do representatives.
McConnell mentioned the 86-11 vote — the highest number of votes ever for a Senate farm bill — on Wednesday in saying he hoped for bipartisan agreement on a compromise bill. The Senate bill includes a McConnell plan to legalize the production of industrial hemp, a potentially high-value crop that can be used to make clothing, soaps, and dietary supplements.
“The House passed an entirely partisan farm bill,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio Democrat. A House negotiator, Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern, echoed him, saying, “What the House did is a rotten deal for poor people.” Republican Sean Duffy of New York defended the House plan. “If you’re an able-bodied adult … you can’t sit at home — work or get training,” he said. “I think this is a smart [idea] we can find a united position on.”
Rep. Frank Lucas said Congress ought to wait for the results of 10 pilot projects that are experimenting with approaches to job training and education to help SNAP recipients find work and move up the job ladder. “Give us things to work on,” said the Oklahoma Republican, who was House Agriculture chair when the 2014 farm law commissioned the projects.
Southerners were the most prominent, but not the sole, critics of a Senate proposal to limit eligibility for crop subsidies to farmers, their spouses, and one “manager” per farm. Sen. John Boozman, an Arkansas Republican, said the limit “will only exacerbate the pain being felt in rural America” from low commodity prices. “It discriminates against farmers … in each one of your states and districts,” he said. The House bill would make nieces, nephews, and cousins of farmers eligible for subsidies and remove payment limits on some types of corporate farms
The House bill also would eliminate the Conservation Stewardship Program, which encourages soil, water, and wildlife conservation on working lands.