The Senate passed an $867 billion measure Tuesday authorizing agriculture policies and spending as well as the nation’s food stamp program.
Senate lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the 2018 farm bill, voting 87-13, sending the measure to the House for final approval, where it is expected to easily pass.
The five-year authorization measure is a bipartisan compromise between the House and Senate.
The bill excludes significant reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, that had been included in the House version.
The reforms would have broadened work requirements for food stamp recipients and directed $1 billion toward job training programs.
Democrats were opposed to the reforms and argued the work requirements would force needy people off of food stamps and waste money on duplicative job training programs.
The measure legalizes industrial hemp production, a provision favored by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whose state is a producer.
The bill reauthorizes federal crop insurance programs and provides an additional $500 million to aid farmers in finding new foreign markets to export goods. It also provides $300 million to research and combat animal diseases.
“As promised, this farm bill provides much needed certainty and predictability for all producers of all crops across all regions across the country,” Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said the measure makes it harder to dodge current federal work requirements that are already part of the food stamp program.
“On the SNAP side, we make improvements with respect to program integrity that are important moving forward,” Conaway said.
