With the farm bill facing a test vote in the House today, the Trump administration called the bill “a step toward meaningful welfare reform” with its stricter work requirements for SNAP recipients. “The administration believes that work reforms like those in HR 2 are a critical component of any multi-year farm bill reauthorization,” said the White House on Tuesday.
House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway said he lacked a majority for the $87 billion-a-year bill. “We are working with all the factions of the family,” he told reporters. Democrats are expected to vote uniformly against the bill so Conaway has concentrated on the 235 Republicans in the House. He needs 215 votes, a simple majority of House membership, to be sure of passing a bill instead of the usual 218 because seven of the 435 seats are vacant.
The first test of the bill will come today in a procedural vote, on terms of “general” debate of the bill—an hour of discussion—and consideration of 20 noncontroversial amendments. The roll call will gauge sentiment on the bill. If the so-called debate rule is approved, House Republican leaders will be fairly sure of securing passage of the bill. As a procedural matter, the House cannot vote on a bill without first agreeing on the debate rule.
Although the White House signaled that President Trump would sign the bill in its current form, it said the farm bill failed to include farm and conservation reforms that if backed. In February, Trump proposed a 33 percent cut in federally subsidized crop insurance, chiefly by making farmers pay more for coverage and denying crop subsidies and land stewardship payments to people with more than $500,000 in adjusted gross income. At present, the government pays 62 cents of each $1 in premium and crop subsidies are available people with incomes up to $900,000 AGI.
Conaway and Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Robert discussed the farm bill last week with Trump. “The president told me he wants crop insurance changes,” said Conaway.
“HR 2 is clearly a step toward meaningful welfare reform,” said the White House in its two-page statement. The bill would toughen work requirements for SNAP recipients while loosening crop subsidy rules for farmers.
Written by Conaway in the face of objections by Democrats on his committee, HR 2 is the most partisan farm bill in years. It would require up to 9 million “work capable” adults aged 18 to 60 to work at least 20 hours a week or spend equivalent time in job training or workfare to qualify for SNAP. It also tightens eligibility rules for the program. The think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates the changes will push 2 million people out of SNAP.
In a sign of sour relations over the farm bill, Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the lead Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, did not attend a Rules Committee meeting on Tuesday to discuss floor debate of the bill. “He won’t legitimize what he regards as an illegitimate process,” said Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, who serves on both committees. A leading SNAP advocate, McGovern said Conaway’s bill “is an off ramp to hardship, plain and simple,” rather than a springboard to opportunity, as Conaway portrays it.
The Rules Committee is scheduled to meet today to consider terms of debate for more than 80 remaining amendments proposed for the farm bill. They include proposals to tighten farm subsidy rules, to make growers pay more for crop insurance and to impose stricter rules on food stamps, such as barring purchase of soda and junk food or setting a work requirement of 30 hours a week.
To read the statement of administration policy on the farm bill, click here.