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Congress passes Farm Bill SNAP cuts will not affect Texas On February 4th, the U.S. Senate gave final approval to the $100 billion Agriculture Act of 2014, better known as the “Farm Bill”. The Senate vote marked the end of an almost-four-year struggle within Congress to craft this legislation. The Farm Bill includes an $8.6 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as “Food Stamps”). The cut is made to SNAP benefits associated with a home heating program which Texas does not offer. While Texas families will not be directly affected, it represents real hardship to the 850,000 households across America which will experience a reduction in their SNAP benefits averaging $90 per month. The Farm Bill increases support for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) by $205 million; this is welcome news as it will enable additional donations to food banks across the nation of commodities purchased from farms. The final Agriculture Conference Committee version of the Farm Bill remained controversial; Democrats expressed frustration at the reduced but still-huge SNAP cuts, while Republicans continued to press for vastly larger cuts to SNAP, more in line with the $40 billion reduction they had voted to approve in late 2013. The 2014 Farm Bill, while disappointing millions of Americans in its particulars, reflects an all-too rare bipartisan compromise through which Congress voted to support the agricultural industry, offer limited support to federal nutrition programs, and extend taxpayer savings. |
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