Welfare reform faces a critical test in Congress next week when the House considers legislation that would bolster work requirements for food stamp recipients.
The reforms are included in the 2018 Agriculture and Nutrition Act, an $867 billion bill authorizing farm programs as well as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, for the next five years.
Republican leaders and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, are eager to advance the SNAP reforms, but it’s not clear yet whether the legislation can pass the House.
Democrats are poised to unite against the bill because of the reform component and Republicans are not certain they can win over the vast majority of their own conference in order to get the approximately 215 votes that will be needed to pass it with a simple majority.
As late as Thursday, Conaway reported he wasn’t sure of the vote count but was continuing to meet with lawmakers.
Some lawmakers representing SNAP-dependent districts are uneasy with the reforms, which would require 20 hours of training or work for those in the program under 60 who are able bodied and do not have young children.
Conservatives say they like the SNAP reforms but also want reforms on the agriculture side of the bill to curb costly subsidies. In other instances, individual lawmakers are seeking amendments to specifically help agriculture workers in their districts.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told the Washington Examiner he is seeking an amendment to help small dairy farmers in his western district compete against large milk producers.
Meadows heads the conservative House Freedom Caucus. He said the the HFC would probably not come out as a group in favor of Farm Bill but said allowing lawmakers to offer amendments could provide a pathway to pass the measure.
House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said GOP leaders will allow some amendments to the Farm Bill. The panel will meet next week to decide which ones will get a floor vote.
As of Friday, lawmakers had filed nearly 100 amendments for the Rules Committee to consider. The amendments varied wildly, with some addressing crop insurance and others tackling the SNAP program.
One amendment, for example, calls for prohibiting soda purchases with SNAP cards, while another phases out crop subsidies and a third would remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list.
Conaway and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, met with Trump at the White House last week about the bill. The president is a staunch advocate of reforming the food stamp program and urged lawmakers to include them in the Farm Bill, they said after the meeting. Conaway denied reports Trump threatened to veto a farm bill if it does not include the SNAP changes.
The bill that ends up on Trump’s desk probably won’t include the SNAP reforms.
Roberts is writing a Senate Farm bill and has already warned the work requirement probably won’t make it into the legislation because Democrats are needed to help pass the bill and they are opposed to the requirements.
“We are working very hard to get this done as soon as we can,” Roberts said.
On Thursday, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., touted the SNAP reforms as a tool to get more people back into the workforce.
“This is about giving Americans the right incentives and the right skills to get into the labor force,” Ryan said. “It’s what the economy needs, it’s what we need and it’s what can help people move into the lives of self-determination. We need their talents and we want to make sure that people can flourish and succeed. This is the perfect time to do this in this kind of an economy.”
House Democrats have been unbending in their opposition. The work training program, they said, will push millions out of the program and would waste money by creating training programs that are already in place in most states. The GOP plan, they said, would be ineffective and duplicative.
“Instead of making smart investments, Republicans are wasting taxpayer dollars on vast, untested and unworkable bureaucracies that will increase hunger and poverty across the country,” said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Republican leaders will probably pull the bill if it becomes clear next week they can’t get the votes.
It’s unlikely the GOP leadership will want to repeat the spectacle of a Farm Bill failure which occurred in 2013 when Democrats opposed food stamp cuts in the bill and GOP conservatives balked at the overall cost of the legislation. Republicans ended up having to split up the bill and passed the agriculture and SNAP parts of the bill separately.
Conaway has vowed to keep the bill intact this time.
