Amendment Would Give States Half of the Savings if They Cut Off Families
The farm bill is in limbo today after a draconian amendment added by Republicans caused the bill to lose the support of a number of Democrats. After the approval of that amendment – which would give states a strong fiscal incentive to remove many currently eligible families and individuals from the food stamp program (SNAP) – the bill was defeated by a vote of 234 to 195.
The GOP leadership thought they had enough votes to pass the bill, but after today’s changes to the bill, only 24 Democrats voted for. Although many of the Democrats voted against the farm bill because they concluded today that it would cut too much and could cause two million people to lose critical nutrition assistance, the bill was also opposed by 64 House Republicans, many of whom think it doesn’t cut enough.
A blog post this afternoon by Robert Greenstein, President of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, has a blistering critique of the amendment that swung more Democrats against the farm bill. According to Greenstein, the amendment: “…would allow states to require most adults who receive or apply for SNAP — including parents with children as young as 1 year old and many people with disabilities — to work or participate in a work or training program for at least 20 hours a week or else have their entire family’s SNAP benefits cut off.
“The amendment provides no jobs and no funds for work or training programs, and it does not require states to make any work opportunities available. People who want to work and are looking for a job but haven’t found one could be cut off.
“And the amendment gives states a powerful financial incentive to do this. It allows them to keep half of the savings from cutting these people off and to use the money for whatever they want — tax cuts, special-interest subsidies, or anything else.”
The blog post adds that even though the amendment would make employment and training a food stamp eligibility requirement for many more jobless people, the amendment “bars states from spending more on SNAP employment and training than they do now.” Read more here.
Of course, different legislators have different perspectives on why the farm bill was rejected today. Rep. Ron Kind, who has been a leading advocate of making reforms to farm programs and put in a lot of work on the bill, issued a press release today offering this take on the bill’s defeat:
“This farm bill failed because it didn’t include the type of reform that I and others were pushing for to make the bill more fiscally responsible and more responsive to the needs of family farmers.“
I’m sure that was one of the factors, in addition to the fact that a number of Democrats who had planned to vote for the bill until today changed their minds after the late changes went much further in reducing access to SNAP benefits.
Jon Peacock