May 18th, 2018 by WCBC Radio

Today, the House of Representatives considered H.R. 2, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 – more commonly known as the Farm Bill. While the Farm Bill has been traditionally drafted on a bipartisan basis to serve as the primary agricultural and food policy tool for the federal government, this year, it has been hyper-partisan. For the first time in 46 years, the Farm Bill passed out of the House Committee on Agriculture without bipartisan support. Congressman John K. Delaney opposed the bill, which failed by a 198-213 vote. 

 

This partisan Farm Bill drastically cuts the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). By reducing funding by $23 billion, it negatively impacts the 40 million struggling Americans who rely on this program to put food on their tables. Two out of every three people who receive assistance from SNAP are children, disabled, or elderly, and these cuts threaten the free school meals for 265,000 children and moves nearly 1.5 million veterans closer to poverty.

 

The Farm Bill undermines efforts to protect farmland and its surrounding environment by eliminating the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), the nation’s largest working lands conservation program that helps farmers implement sustainable farming practices, and rolls back environmental safeguards.