FARM BILL UPDATE

Negotiations on the Farm Bill may have reached a breaking point, where each side has tied itself in such knots that Washington will soon enter its third year of debate on a five-year bill.  In addition to having to reconcile gaping differences between the House and Senate’s treatment of SNAP, the Conference Committee also has to agree on major differences in farm supports, which is sowing contention between corn and soybean growers.

A SNAP compromise in the range of $10 billion in savings is being discussed.

One approach is to scale back on “heat-and-eat,” under which states distribute low-income fuel assistance — sometimes as little as $1 per year—to SNAP recipients, thereby qualifying them for a standard utility deduction that leverages higher food stamp benefits. Virtually all of the Senate bill’s $4 billion in SNAP savings come from requiring states to distribute at least $10 in such fuel aid to qualify for the utility allowance. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that $8.7 billion could be saved if that minimum were doubled to $20 as the House proposes.

A second option, with modest savings but bigger policy implications, calls for reestablishing a more uniform range of SNAP income eligibility rules. Governors like the flexibility they have now to administer SNAP, but the result is a checkerboard of different rules from one state to the next. Families living just miles apart in the Dakotas and Minnesota are subject to three different gross income tests for the same federal benefit. Democrats do not want to surrender all this flexibility. But states could be required to go no higher than 150% of poverty or about $29,000 for a family of three. This might save between $100 million to $200 million a year, but it would be a step toward the House and some of the savings could be plowed back into increasing employment and training funds for SNAP recipients — a shared goal with many Republicans.

The White House, though, complicated matters on Tuesday when Cecilia Munoz, director of the president’s Domestic Policy Council, told reporters that she saw “no reason” for any further savings from the nutrition program.

Source: Politico, 11/26/13, Farm Bill