Page 83 - Farm Bill Series_The 7 Things You Should Know

GOP primary in 2016. The conservative House Freedom Caucus is still around, but the group has
so far been consumed by the debate over what to do with the Affordable Care Act. Freedom
Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told Agri-Pulse recently he hadn't even thought about
the farm bill and SNAP.

President Trump’s campaign advisers distanced themselves from the GOP platform language.
During an October debate with a surrogate for Hillary Clinton, Trump campaign co-chair Sam
Clovis said that nutrition programs should stay in the farm bill and that the best way to
reduce the cost of SNAP is to promote economic growth that will put more people to work.

A few farm lobbyists wonder privately whether the farm-food coalition is as relevant as it used to
be. SNAP can be routinely extended through appropriations measures. If all a farm bill is going
to do is cut the program, there would seem to be less reason for Democrats to support the
legislation.

But farm and anti-hunger groups say they’re determined to keep their coalition intact, as shown
by last month’s letter to the congressional Budget committees. “The agricultural community as a
whole has little interest in slogging through another farm bill debate without working closely
with our colleagues in the nutrition community,” said Chuck Conner, a deputy agriculture
secretary under George W. Bush who is now president and CEO of the National Council of
Farmer Cooperatives.

Conaway, the House Agriculture Committee chairman, plans to move a new farm bill late this
year or in early 2018, but he’s not sure how extensively Speaker Ryan wants to address SNAP
and other welfare programs, or when. And it’s not clear that whatever Ryan decides to do would
have legs. Unlike in 1996, there’s little interest in the Senate for welfare reform, says Roberts,
the Senate Agriculture chairman.

O’Conner, the former House Agriculture Committee aide who is now a farm policy consultant
with McLeod, Watkinson and Miller, said the public support for welfare reform that existed in
the early 1990s is not there now. “Even the ferment about food stamps that was going during the
last farm bill did not produce results that would tell you that it’s an absolute priority,” he said.

When asked about Ryan’s plans for welfare reform, a spokeswoman responded, “We haven’t
said anything publicly.” A report issued by Ryan last year called for identifying policies that
discourage work-capable SNAP recipients from getting jobs or preparing for employment.

Conaway, meanwhile, faces essentially the same balancing act that Lucas did in finding enough
support to get a farm bill through the House. His committee held 16 hearings on SNAP in 2015
and 2016 and issued a report in December last year with a series of relatively modest
recommendations. Among its conclusions: Some states need to better enforce their work
requirements and enforcement needs to be coupled with better employment and training
programs. “Promoting pathways to employment is the best way to help individuals climb
the economic ladder out of poverty and into self-sufficiency,” the report said.

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