The House Ag farm bill markup has entered its second day, but the key stumbling block to a bipartisan bill has now come into sharp focus. The fight over SNAP versus farm programs has kept a new farm bill off the books for at least three years. Republicans got around that and made cuts to SNAP, using those funds to boost crop support levels in the president’s tax and spending bill last July. Now, Democrats are hammering Ag Committee Republicans over that bill’s work requirements, which cut $187 billion from SNAP. Top Ag Democrat Angie Craig said this has already dealt a huge blow to food assistance programs.
Republicans countered that the work requirements are fair and pointed out that farmers also need help. House Ag Committee Chair GT Thompson said last year’s tax bill boosted reference prices and other farm programs.
Majority Republicans defeated the Democratic amendment to restore the SNAP funding on a voice vote. Democrats then requested a record vote that was postponed. It’s clear that this issue, now in the heat of a mid-term election year, will again cost bipartisan support for a farm bill that hasn’t been updated since 2018.
