(WASHINGTON D.C.) — A key Senator says lawmakers could be in the same boat again this year on a new farm bill, though much will depend on spending cuts in the upcoming budget process.
Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley agrees that any new farm bill has to clear a 60-vote threshold to advance in the Senate. And if Democrats withhold their votes over SNAP or other savings already planned in a House version, he says “we’ll be in the same boat we were before. Instead of having a five-year farm bill or six-year or seven, we’d have an eight-year farm bill, which isn’t right for farmers.”
Because of years of lower prices and high input costs. But the question is whether Republicans pare SNAP further with new work or training requirements to meet billions in ag savings called for in the so-called budget reconciliation. “Whether SNAP is in reconciliation or whether we make those decisions in the five-year farm bill, we’re still going to have to have the reauthorization of the food stamp program,” according to Grassley.
Democrats predict that SNAP cuts in the politically tough reconciliation process are not a given. Grassley says “and if it happens, it’s going to have to happen under extreme situations of not losing more than two or three Republican votes in the United States Senate, and the same in the House of Representatives.”
But House Ag Chair GT Thompson remains committed to farm bill SNAP savings, no matter what happens in reconciliation. Grassley expects a farm bill to move a few weeks or months after lawmakers complete the budget process, which House Speaker Johnson hopes to do by Memorial Day.
SOURCE Matt Kaye, Berns Bureau, Washington, D.C. via NAFB News Service
