Thursday, July 11, 2013

House passes Farm Bill without food stamps

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 216-208 this afternoon to pass a Farm Bill that does not include food stamps and other nutrition programs, ending a 40-year alliance between rural-agricultural lobbies and urban-hunger interests. The vote was mainly along party lines, with 12 Republicans voting against it and no Democrats supporting it. For the roll call, click here. A 223-195 procedural vote clearing the way for passage was almost entirely partisan.

The bill's prospects in a conference with the Senate are anything but clear. The food-stamp program is an entitlement and can be continued through appropriations bills. A fight over food-stamp cuts last month led to defeat of the bill and a move by leaders of the House's Republican majority to separate the nutrition portion. Majority Leader Eric Cantor said after passage that the GOP would "move with dispatch" to bring a nutrition bill to the floor so a House-Senate conference could begin.

The other major change in the bill from the version that failed last month is language repealing basic farm laws passed in 1938 and 1949. David Rogers of Politico notes that the laws have provided "political leverage for commodity groups" because they made passage of farm bills imperative to avoid reversion to, for example, big dairy price supports that would raise milk prices. "They are largely impractical today and the new commodity title will now take their place as the new permanent law going forward."

Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, "said the risk now is that if a modern commodity tittle is substituted as permanent law, the winners will be less willing to compromise. As a result he said conservation and research programs will be sacrificed," Rogers reports.

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