Lawmakers Worry House Budget Plan Could Tank New Farm Bill

By Ryan Hanrahan, University of Illinois’ FarmDoc project

Politico’s Grace Yarrow reported Monday that “key House Republicans are growing increasingly worried that planned cuts to a popular food aid program under the GOP’s reconciliation package could sink hopes for a new farm bill at a time when the party is in a strong position to shape the legislation.”

The budget plan that was approved in the US House of Representatives last night “calls for substantial reductions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as part of $230 billion in agriculture spending cuts,” Yarrow reported. “It’s rankling both swing-district lawmakers with constituents who rely on the aid and those representing farm-heavy districts where President Donald Trump’s policies are threatening to worsen economic headwinds.

“‘It’s always been a careful balance’ between finding spending trims for reconciliation and the farm bill, said Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), a member of the House Agriculture Committee,” according to Yarrow’s reporting. “‘Various of us have discussed with each other how we can’t give everything in the first call. You’ve got to have some resources to work with [for the farm bill].'”

“The tensions around the reconciliation cuts are complicating matters for Republicans who were hoping that GOP control of Congress and the White House would make it easier to get a farm bill done after years of bipartisan conflict,” Yarrow reported. “Many agriculture policies haven’t been updated since 2018. Lawmakers have a narrow window to pass new legislation this year before the midterm elections complicate negotiations.”

“In order to reach the $230 billion mark, Republicans are considering limiting future changes to the Thrifty Food Plan, the basis for calculating SNAP benefits. Doing that or slashing SNAP in any meaningful way could mean lawmakers won’t have that money to pay for updating the so-called farm safety net and other expensive programs within the farm bill,” Yarrow reported. “The House Agriculture Committee’s GOP-led farm bill, which passed out of committee last May, relied on limiting Thrifty Food Plan updates as a way to finance other spending.”

“Another GOP representative, granted anonymity to air concerns about leadership’s reconciliation plan, said that snipping nutrition spending now will make the ‘heavy lift’ of farm bill negotiations even more difficult,” Yarrow reported. “A congressional aide added that lawmakers are ‘most definitely impeding a farm bill being fully offset when you’re having this conversation outside of it.'”

Budget Resolution Has Passed the House

NBC News’ Scott Wong, Sahil Kapur, Melanie Zanona, Syedah Asghar and Julie Tsirkin reported Tuesday night that “Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday muscled a multitrillion-dollar budget blueprint through the House by the narrowest of margins — a crucial step for Republicans as they embark on advancing President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.”

“The vote was 217-215, with Republicans casting all of the votes in favor of the budget resolution. Just one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., joined all Democrats in voting against it,” Wong, Kapur, Zanona, Asghar and Tsirkin reported. “…The budget measure calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and a goal of $2 trillion in spending cuts. It includes more than $100 billion in new spending on immigration enforcement and the military. It also requires the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in cuts to federal programs, and Republicans say some of that will come from reducing spending on Medicaid. And it raises the debt limit by $4 trillion.”

Agri-Pulse’s Rebekah Alvey, Oliver Ward, Philip Brasher, Noah Wicks, and Steve Davies reported Tuesday that House Agriculture Committee “Chairman Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., told reporters he urged members to vote for the resolution. He said he expects the actual number the committee must find in spending cuts to be somewhere between the $230 billion laid out in the House resolution and the $1 billion required by the Senate budget plan.”

“Thompson declined to offer specifics about possible pay-fors but insisted they would focus on SNAP program integrity,” Alvey, Ward, Brasher, Wicks and Davies reported. “‘It would be hard, but no scenario though involves cutting benefits to SNAP,’ Thompson said.”

“The successful (House) vote puts the ball back in the Senate’s court,” Wong, Kapur, Zanona, Asghar and Tsirkin reported. “Because Trump has endorsed the House budget plan, the Senate will be under pressure to take up and pass that blueprint, even though the upper chamber adopted its own version last week.”