美国国家公共电台 NPR How The Midterms And Lame-Duck Session Are Pushing The Farm Bill To A Deal

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How The Midterms And Lame¹-Duck Session Are Pushing The Farm Bill To A Deal

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When Congress returns to Washington after Thanksgiving, members will be under pressure to pass a farm bill. The outcome of the midterm elections has changed negotiations² on this major piece of legislation, as NPR's Brakkton Booker explains.

BRAKKTON BOOKER, BYLINE³: The farm bill is typically an exercise in bipartisanship. But in an election year, it's no surprise why this farm bill has yet to bear fruit. Here's President Trump⁴ on the day after Democrats⁵ won back the House.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Everybody wants it. The farmers want it, but the Democrats are not approving the farm bill with work rules.

BOOKER: Here's the background on those work rules. Despite its name, the bulk of the farm bill - about 80 percent - goes to funding SNAP. That stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Most people simply call it food stamps.

At issue is a proposal from the House calling for stricter work requirements for those getting food assistance. It expands the age of those required to work or be enrolled⁶ in job training, among other things.

Mike Conaway is the GOP chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. He's confident that after months of negotiations, lawmakers are getting close to a final deal.

MIKE CONAWAY: I've got responsibilities to - to work on behalf of the House and get what we need to get out of the bill. And we're still working on that.

BOOKER: The House bill narrowly passed and with only Republican votes. The Senate version, meanwhile, was overwhelmingly supported by Democrats and Republicans. Again, Congressman⁷ Conaway.

CONAWAY: The Senate bill is not perfect. We're working to get what we can on the SNAP and make the product better than it currently is.

BOOKER: He's hoping to get one last victory for Republicans before they cede⁸ control of the House to Democrats. Conaway admits the midterms killed most of his leverage⁹ to keep work requirements in. He's now left with two basic options; one, hold the line on the work requirements issue and risk that no farm bill is passed in the lame duck - the drawback - it gets rewritten by Democrats when they are in charge of the House; or, two, pick up the Senate farm bill, which largely leaves SNAP unchanged.

Tom Vilsack is the former Democratic governor of Iowa and served as agriculture secretary under President Obama.

TOM VILSACK: It behooves¹⁰ the Republicans, if they want to get a farm bill done, to basically figure out a way for the chairman to save face and get this thing through the process so that he can point to the fact that he passed a farm bill during the time he was chair.

BOOKER: With all of that in mind, Vilsack says the farm bill is a complex piece of legislation. In addition to SNAP, the farm bill covers a range of subsidies¹¹ for farmers, aids in conservation and boosts rural development.

Robert Rector is a senior research fellow at the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation. He says the government's spending on SNAP is unsustainable, and Republicans need to dig in to keep work requirements in the final bill.

ROBERT RECTOR: Now, I think that they have more leverage than they think they do. The way that this program survives without being changed is that they kick the can down the street, but they kick it five years at a time.

BOOKER: Instead of reauthorizing the farm bill every five years as it normally is, Rector says it should be renewed every six months.

RECTOR: They should come back to it again and again and again by having short reauthorizations that require this issue to be brought up until it's resolved correctly.

BOOKER: Critics of the new work rules say if they are enacted¹², as many as 2 million people would have their food benefits reduced or lost altogether.

But Trump says he really wants them. If new work rules are not in the final farm bill, the question becomes, will the president veto it? Brakkton Booker, NPR News, Washington.

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