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Coppess: Senate vote strong and should influence SNAP negotiations

An expert in government ag policy says the 86 vote bipartisan support of the Senate farm bill should influence how the conference committee looks at the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Jonathon Coppess leads the Garner Agriculture Policy Program and the Bock Ag Law programs at the University of Illinois.  He says, “For those of us that really want to see a farm bill done, I think the tough reality is that the House is going to need to make some major reconsiderations of how they are treating this low-income food assistance program.”

Coppess likes the Senate’s approach to SNAP and tells Brownfield the U.S. has an improving economy, but improvements for those with lower incomes have been slow and the poverty numbers have not improved as fast as the unemployment rate.  “Wages have been down for quite a while and that’s the key for SNAP, so they’ve put all of this focus on what they call workforce solutions, on work requirements, and really it’s just paperwork requirements.  All they’re doing is spending billions on this bureaucratic sort-of effort to make it harder to get SNAP.”

Coppess is also watching for how the House and Senate conference committee deals with major differences in conservation program funding and the eligibility and payment limitations for farm programs.

Coppess says the Congressional schedule is complicated because of midterm elections, the immigration battles that did not get resolved in the House, and the Supreme Court nomination process so, “The best chance to get this farm bill done is going to be sooner rather than later.”

Jonathon Coppess discusses the farm bill, SNAP program, and conservation with Brownfield’s Larry Lee