The White House listed five dozen objections to parts of a $260 billion government funding bill, including bans on implementing two Trump regulations to narrow SNAP eligibility, on Thursday, and threatened a presidential veto. The House debated the appropriations bill at the same time Republican senators worked on coronavirus relief legislation expected to include billions of dollars of new agricultural assistance.
The SNAP provisions “would stop historic welfare reforms at the Department of Agriculture,” said a White House statement. At issue are regulations, involving utility costs and time limits on benefits, that affect about 700,000 people. A third regulation, restricting the use of so-called categorical eligibility by states, would end food stamps for 3 million people and was not challenged in the funding bill.
Enrollment in SNAP has skyrocketed to 43 million during the pandemic, an increase of 6.2 million people in three months. The Trump regulations were written when unemployment rates were low and the economy was strong — unlike the current situation. All the same, the administration wants to proceed with them. Stricter time limits on benefits for so-called ABAWDs, or able-bodied adults without dependents, “moves work-capable adults toward and into employment,” said the White House.
House Republicans referred to the SNAP provisions as “poison pills” during committee consideration of funding for the USDA and FDA for fiscal 2021, and today’s White House veto threat accused Democrats of “poison pills” and other breaches of a 2019 agreement on spending. The USDA-FDA bill was folded into “mini-bus” legislation that also funds the State Department, the Interior Department, the Veterans Administration, and military construction projects.
The bill also would give the FDA the authority to order the recall of unsafe prescription and over-the-counter drugs rather than having to ask manufacturers to recall them. The FDA already has the power to order recalls of products ranging from vaccines and medical devices to food and tobacco.
In its appropriations debate, the House adopted, 223-194, a multi-part amendment that included a ban on USDA use of an executive order to keep meat and poultry plants operating during the pandemic. President Trump issued the order in April, when coronavirus outbreaks had slowed meat production nationwide. Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, sponsored the language to withhold funding used to implement the executive order.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans were working on their coronavirus relief package. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans and the administration had agreed on Thursday on “a framework that will enable Congress to make law and deliver relief to the American people,” reported the Washington Post. But elements of the package, an opening offer for negotiations with Democrats, were still under debate.
As part of its own coronavirus relief plan, the Democratic-controlled House voted in May for a temporary 15 percent increase in SNAP benefits and an additional $16.5 billion for direct payments to farmers and ranchers as well as compensation for producers forced to cull livestock during the pandemic.
Similar amounts of agricultural assistance are expected in the Senate Republican package, said North Dakota’s John Hoeven, a key member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, in an interview with The Hagstrom Report. Hoeven said the Republican package would include payments to ethanol plants and to livestock producers for the disposal of culled animals. Additional money for SNAP was an issue to be decided by congressional leaders and the White House, said Hoeven.
According to unofficial descriptions, “It appears the [GOP] package fails to include a boost in SNAP benefits (while upping tax breaks for business meals),” tweeted Stacy Dean of the think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.