House Agriculture Committee
Farm groups disagree on farm bill checkoff amendment
Thirty-eight farm groups signed on to a letter to the ranking members of the House Agriculture Committee urging them to oppose a farm bill amendment that would more stringently regulate commodity checkoff programs.
Sharp division, specter of 2013 defeat in farm bill debate
House Democrats stood solidly against the GOP-written farm bill in a test vote on Wednesday that gave Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway little room to maneuver on the legislation, which would tighten work requirements for food stamps and loosen subsidy rules for farmers.
Trump urges speedy work on farm bill; GOP sets House debate
House Republican leaders have scheduled the farm bill for debate next week, confident that when the time comes, a majority will vote for its combination of tougher work requirements for SNAP recipients and looser subsidy rules for farmers.
Trump turns up the heat on work requirements in the farm bill
President Trump’s preference for work requirements in social welfare programs is expected to come up today in a meeting to discuss the farm bill with the chairmen of the House and Senate Agricultural committees.
House Republicans will pass farm bill on their own, says Conaway
With Democrats solidly in opposition, House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway says he will canvass his Republican colleagues to make sure they will pass, as early as next week, a farm bill that toughens work requirements on SNAP recipients and loosens crop subsidy limits for farmers. Passage could require a repeat on the House floor of the party-line approval in committee on April 18 of the most partisan farm bill in years.
Show of opposition: No Democratic amendments for farm bill, says Peterson
Just as they did at committee level, House Democrats will show their opposition to the Republican-written farm bill by refusing to offer amendments during floor debate, said Rep. Collin Peterson on Wednesday.
House conservatives: End crop subsidies, slash crop insurance, block-grant SNAP
If the House followed the lead of the Republican Study Committee, it would abolish crop and dairy subsidies, slash taxpayer support for crop insurance, phase out the USDA’s two largest soil and water conservation programs, and convert SNAP funding to block grants to states.
The ‘big two’ U.S. ag groups differ on House farm bill, SNAP overhaul
The National Farmers Union said it opposes the Republican-written farm bill awaiting a vote in the House. The American Farm Bureau Federation, for its part, said the partisan split over the bill was not an insurmountable barrier to passing a new farm and public nutrition law this year.
Republican-drawn farm bill would loosen limits on collecting farm subsidies
There is little bite in the weak limits the government imposes on farm subsidy payments, and now reformers say the limits will become toothless under provisions in the Republican-drawn farm bill in the House.
GOP-controlled panel approves SNAP overhaul that Democrats say is unworkable
After Democrats spent three hours criticizing House Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway’s plan to overhaul SNAP, the committee approved its draft of the farm bill on a party-line vote.
Peterson’s farm bill plan: ‘Ask a lot of questions and vote no’
The Democratic leader on the House Agriculture Committee said that “you can’t fix a bad bill,” so when the committee meets on Wednesday to vote on the proposed farm bill, “We’re going to ask a bunch of questions and vote no.”
Conaway’s ‘springboard out of poverty’ is a trap door, say anti-hunger groups
House Republicans said on Thursday that they would expand work requirements to cover 6 million SNAP recipients and were willing to go it alone to pass the first openly partisan farm bill in living memory.
GOP plan: To get SNAP benefits, get training or get to work
Michael Conaway, the Republican chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, proposed a dramatic change in SNAP today that would significantly tighten eligibility rules for the program.
Conaway package: $20 billion in SNAP cuts, more work required for benefits
As many as 5 million people will have to work longer hours each week to avoid a 90-day limit on food stamp benefits under revisions proposed by the Republican chairman of the House Agriculture Committee but uniformly opposed by its Democratic members.
Conaway: I’ll pass a farm bill without Democratic help
At an impasse with Democrats over his plans for large cuts in the food stamp program, House Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway says he will write — and pass — a farm bill without them.
SNAP costs fall as call for change rises
The cost of the largest U.S. antihunger program, food stamps, doubled during the slow recovery from the 2008-09 recession, a factor in the first-ever House defeat of a farm bill in 2013. Costs have fallen for four years in a row and are expected to fall again but SNAP, as the food stamp program is known, again is the divisive factor in writing an omnibus farm bill.
Peterson: No negotiations until Democrats see farm bill text
Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee say they are increasingly concerned that Republican Chairman Michael Conaway is pursuing steep cuts in food stamps. As a result, the panel’s lead Democrat, Collin Peterson, shut off farm bill negotiations until Conaway releases all pertinent materials.
Food stamp impasse delays House work on farm bill until mid-April
House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway has shelved plans for committee approval of the new farm bill next week in the face of Democratic opposition to his proposed cuts in the $70-billion-a-year food stamp program.