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House Ag Committee ranking member says reconciliation creates challenges for a farm bill
The ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee says reconciliation, by nature, is a partisan process, and it makes getting a 5-year farm bill completed more difficult. Angie Craig represents Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District. “Look, I’ve told GT I’m going to stay at the table no matter what happens,” she says. “But I’ve also warned him that anywhere near these cuts that the House instructions require of this Committee are going to make it very, very problematic for me to get 150 Democrats to support the farm bill.”
The House Ag Committee’s budget proposal would overhaul the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and cut $290 billion in spending over the next 10 years.
Congresswoman Craig told farm broadcasters in Washington, D.C. last week, “The truth is that the White House and Republican leadership are forcing the Republican Conference to make cuts to benefits that some of them would rather not do.”
And she says, “The real question is, will any of them stand up and say no to their own conference? And right now, I just don’t see anybody willing to stand up to this administration on that side of the aisle.”
The draft text includes proposals that expand the work requirements for program eligibility and require states to start paying for a portion of the program’s cost.
The House Ag Committee is scheduled to markup its portion of the budget reconciliation bill this evening.
Let’s make the farm bill about farming again.