The Senate is planning to vote on a farm bill that sets up a clash over food stamp reform with President Trump and House Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he’ll hold a vote this week on the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, a five-year authorization of farm programs and policy, as well as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) otherwise known as food stamps.
The Senate bill would also decriminalize the production of hemp — a cannabis plant that includes only a fraction the chemical THC found in marijuana.
While the House and Senate bills overlap in many areas, they differ considerably on SNAP, which comprises the vast majority of the cost of the legislation.
The House on Thursday passed legislation that would both increase and tighten existing work requirements for many able-bodied people who receive food stamps. The measure requires anyone without young children who is under 60 and not disabled to either work 20 hours each week or attend a program to prepare them to work.
It would also make it harder for states to waive the work requirements. The House bill also provides $1 billion to augment state training programs for those who cannot find a job.
The Senate bill, however, excludes the House work requirement changes despite support from President Trump, who last month warned Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, who met with him alongside House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, that he may not sign a farm bill unless it includes tougher work requirements for food stamps.
But the Senate rules require 60 votes to advance legislation and the GOP controls only 50 seats. That means Democrats are needed to get anything across the finish line.
Roberts wrote a bipartisan bill with the top Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, and they took out the food stamp changes in the House version.
“The goal, the responsibility, the absolute requirement for this committee is to provide farmers, ranchers, growers and everyone in the agriculture food value chain certainty and predictability, especially in these difficult times,” Roberts said last week. “This is absolutely paramount to any other concern.”
The bill is expected to pass the Senate.
From there it will end up in a conference with the House version and lawmakers from the two chambers will have to work out a compromise.
The final deal will probably exclude the House changes to SNAP. Despite his earlier threat, Trump is unlikely to veto a bill that is critical to the struggling farming community that has also been hit hard by recent retaliatory tariffs on agriculture exports.
McConnell will likely get his wish of legalizing hemp production, which has become an important industry in his home state of Kentucky.
McConnell, a member of the Agriculture Committee, authored a bill to decriminalize hemp and the language is now included in the farm bill. For the past few years, Kentucky farmers and a few other states had been permitted to grow hemp for industrial purposes under a special federal program. Hemp is used for protein powder, health products and clothing, among others.
“Federal law has mostly prohibited our own farmers from getting in on the action,” McConnell said. “It’s time to remove the roadblocks and let American farmers explore this growing market. This has long been a priority of mine. I championed hemp pilot programs in the 2014 farm bill. They’ve shown big success. It’s time to take the next step.”
