The bipartisan Senate farm bill “misses key opportunities to reform” the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by forgoing tougher work requirements for low-income adults who seek food stamps, said the White House on Tuesday, pointing to the salient feature of the Republican-written House farm bill. “We did a good job on SNAP,” responded Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts, who shrugged off House vs Senate comparisons as premature.
Senators are expected to pass this week by a comfortable margin the farm bill sponsored by Roberts and Sen Debbie Stabenow, the senior Democrat on the Agriculture Committee. Sen John Thune, No 3 in Republican leadership, anticipated “a good strong vote that will send this to conference and get this onto the president’s desk before (the 2014) farm bill expires” on September 30. Senators backed the Roberts-Stabenow bill, 89-3, in a procedural vote on Monday.
The first votes on amendments are scheduled for today, announced Roberts, with the lead-off amendment directed at the Conservation Reserve, which pays landowners an annual rent to idle land for 10 years or longer. From arid South Dakota, Thune says the program should allow landowners to harvest hay or graze livestock on a portion of idled land if they accept a lower rental payment.
President Trump has called for new and stronger work requirements for social safety net programs and the White House said last month, in assessing the House farm bill, that “work reforms…are a critical component of any multi-year farm bill reauthorization.”
In a statement of administration policy, the White House said the Senate farm bill “misses key opportunities to reform the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Most notably, the bill does not strengthen work requirements for able-bodied working age adults. The bill also fails to close eligibility loopholes and target benefits to the neediest households…”
Roberts sighed at assessments that put the Senate farm bill at a poor light compared to the polarizing House bill on SNAP. “We’ll consider that, obviously, when that goes to conference,” said the Kansan. The Senate bill would improve administrative efficiency for SNAP and stay away from the divisive work requirements of the House bill.
The political dynamics of the House and Senate pull legislation in opposite directions. Republicans hold a 51-49 margin in the Senate, where 60 votes often are needed for success, so bipartisanship is a winning strategy. In the House, Republicans out-number Democrats 235-193 and GOP leaders decided to write welfare reform into the farm bill by requiring 7 million or more “work capable” adults aged 18-59 to work at least 20 hours a week or spend equal time in job training or workfare to get food stamps. The House passed its bill, 213-211, on its second attempt with only Republicans voting for it.
According to some analysts, the Senate would not pass the House farm bill and the House would not accept the Senate bill because of the disagreement over SNAP. The issue could become a roadblock on the highway to farm bill enactment before fall. Since 1990, Congress has completed work on a farm bill on time just once. The 2014 farm law, delayed for more than a year by conservative Republican demands for the largest SNAP cuts in a generation, originally was the 2012 farm bill.
“We’re going through a rough patch,” said Roberts, referring to the slump in farm income since the collapse of the commodity boom in 2013. “Certainty and predictability (of the farm safety net) is paramount.”
The Roberts-Stabenow bill faces challenge by a handful of reformers. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley wants to tighten crop subsidy rules. Illinois Sen Richard Durbin would require the wealthiest 1 percent of farmers, with adjusted gross incomes above $700,000 a year, to pay half of the premium for taxpayer-subsidized crop insurance. Senators Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania say growers should be limited to $125,000 a year in premium subsidies.
Roberts is a leading proponent of crop insurance and farm groups made a strong insurance programs as their farm bill priority. “By the way, that’s the No 1 issue we’ve found throughout the nation,” said Roberts during a brief news conference.