GOP loses on food stamps in farm bill
WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators unveiled a compromise farm bill late Monday, eliminating the most sweeping changes to the food stamp program and forestry management that House Republicans had sought to include in the must-pass legislation.
Billions of dollars in agricultural support and food security programs hang in the balance as Congress races to finish the legislation by the end of the year.
House Republicans largely failed in their attempt to place tougher work requirements on food stamp recipients and overhaul the management of national forests to make it easier to lift environmental protections in the name of fire prevention.
The Senate approved the compromise bill Tuesday, 87-13. The House could vote as early as Wednesday, and passage there is all but certain, said Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the Agriculture Committee.
The compromise that congressional conferees produced reconciled starkly different Senate- and House-passed versions of the twice-a-decade legislation, which authorizes
money and sets policy for agriculture and food security. The Senate passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan farm bill, while the House narrowly passed a version with only Republican votes that advocates said would have kicked more than 1.5 million people off food stamps.
But after House Republicans were decisively defeated in the November midterms, they lost negotiating leverage and acquiesced to a bill that more closely resembles the Senate version. Both lead negotiators in the House called the bill an exercise in the art of the doable.
Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, called the bill a “positive” lifeline for rural America.
“It’s the best we can do at the time,” Peterson said, telling reporters he had hoped for more changes but had to settle for less to get a bill passed.
The bill largely leaves intact the food stamp program, which accounts for 80 percent of the spending in the nearly trillion-dollar package. Republicans touted a few minor provisions they negotiated into the compromise, including greater data collection they say will give a better picture of who uses food stamps.
The compromise farm bill also leaves out the most sweeping environmental changes sought by House Republicans and the Trump administration. Lawmakers and advocates said the final version seeks to improve forest management in the aftermath of devastating California wildfires by encouraging collaboration between governmental and nongovernmental landowners and keeping environmental waivers for logging and other landscape clearance to 3,000 acres at a time. House Republicans had sought to double the acreage and expand waivers.
Environmental advocates cheered the final result.
“It’s heartening to see this bill’s near-complete rejection of the horrendous anti-environmental policies offered by House Republicans,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Despite a few unfortunate concessions to the timber industry, lawmakers rejected the Trump administration’s shameless effort to exploit the Camp Fire tragedy to promote unfettered clear-cutting.”
The bill also makes permanent or expands a number of provisions key to California growers and farmers, including expanding support for organic farming, funding specialty crop research and supporting promotion of agricultural products overseas. Such promotion is especially important to winemakers and other growers smarting from President Trump’s trade war.
Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock (Stanislaus County), also fought off a proposal from GOP Iowa Rep. Steve King that would have limited states’ ability to set their own food standards, particularly for the egg industry. California voters have passed measures in recent years requiring minimum spaces for egglaying hens, calves grown for veal and breeding pigs.
Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, hailed the protection of food stamps and organic growing programs.
“My district on the central coast of California is the fifth-largest organics producing district in the country, home to over 400 organic producers. To remain competitive, these operations depend on innovations in research,” Panetta said. The changes in the bill “will provide economic opportunity for our producers and increase accessibility to consumers through science-based advancements.”