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Farm Bill in Jeopardy Over Food Programs
USAgNet - 03/15/2018

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway said he’s delaying the release of a draft law renewing farm and nutrition programs to try and produce a bill with bipartisan support after intense Democratic opposition over cuts to the food-stamp program raised the possibility the bill could be imperiled.

According to Bloomberg, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the farm panel, said the additional work requirements for more recipients and other changes proposed by Republicans would drop 8 million people from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, dooming support from Democrats.

Conaway has denied that many people would lose benefits, but budget-hawk Republicans may balk at any plan that doesn’t do enough to cut food stamps and farm subsidies.

Conaway said he won’t rule out releasing a farm bill designed to appeal only to Republicans, which would put it at risk in the Senate, where Democratic votes are needed. He said he is still trying to gain Democratic support. The chairman had previously said his committee would send a farm bill to the House floor with the goal of a full-chamber vote by the end of March. That becomes more difficult without any bill this week.

Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts said it’s crucial to get the farm bill to get done this year because of the possibility that tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump might trigger retaliation that would hit farmers.

“At a time when farm income is down and exports are threatened from a protectionist trade policy it is the duty of the agriculture committees to provide farmers with some certainty,” Roberts of Kansas said. The Senate may release its version of the legislation in April, he said.

The impasse echoes divisions that delayed the current farm bill by nearly a year-and-a-half when it was last renewed in 2014. It also casts doubt on how much money will go to grocers such as Kroger Co. via the food-stamp program as well as the shape of subsidies paid to farmers who are struggling with low profits.

The bill, the cost of which has topped $ 100 billion in previous years, authorizes programs overseen by the Agriculture Department, ranging from payments to growers of corn and soybeans and funds to prevent forest fires to nutrition to aid poor people. The current farm law ends Sept. 30, after which subsidies begin to phase out.


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