Avoid the food fight
Pass the Farm Bill, without food-stamp fuss
Congress should act quickly to overcome needless partisan rancor over work requirements for food stamp recipients and approve a farm bill that locks down farm subsidies and insurance for the next five years.
A lot could change very soon in the U.S. economy, including the global prices on American food, and aconsensus farm bill is one way to establish certainty.
The Farm Bill that passed the House on Thursday was by a twovote majority and was said to be the firstever to pass either chamber with onlyone-party support. That’snot bipartisanship. The Senate version, in committee, is more bipartisan and does not attempt to tighten work requirements, whichare already substantial.
The House divided along party lines, with some Republicans voting in opposition, because of the higher requirements for work to get food stamps, known as the Supplemental NutritionAssistance Program.
Food stamps help some 42 million Americans buy groceries and help sustainlife all over our country, especially in the rural areas.
SNAP accounts for about threequarters of the $860 billion cost of the FarmBill, and the House version, if it stands, supposedly would cut about $20billion from SNAP over 10 years.
Requiring food stamp recipients who can work to work is a sound policy. Already people between the ages of 18 and 49 have to work at least 20 hoursa week, or prove that they tried to find employment, except for the disabled or those with small children to care for.
TheHouse bill would increase that workwindow to the age of 59.
We need rigorous but not punitive work requirements for all welfare programs, which are an expression of compassion by American taxpayers. No able-bodied person has the a right to pass the day in idleness and then expect his or her fellow Americansto pay for their meals.
There is work, especially in agriculture, that Americans will not do, and which is often done by illegal immigrants.
But Congress must avoid, even at the cost of some abuse of the program, barriers that will cut off any deserving Americans — especially children — from simply getting enough food to eat. Along those lines, the Farm Bill allocates billions of dollars to job training and counseling that, if done right, really will raise peopleout of poverty.
The U.S. Farm Bureau supported the bill. According to the Farm Bureau, farmers have lost nearly half of their net farm income in the last five years. The Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, its official name, sets the basic parameters for a safeand affordable food supply.