Farm bill faces battle as GOP pushes to strip climate, SNAP funding for subsidies

Source: The Hill

Farm bill faces battle as GOP pushes to strip climate, SNAP funding for subsidies

BY SAUL ELBEIN - 11/06/23 6:00 AM ET

Congress appears unlikely to pass a new farm bill by the end of this year amid standoffs over Republicans’ push to extend subsidies to three specific Southern crops — at the potential cost of billions in both food aid and popular farm conservation programs.

Funding for farm bill programs is currently set to expire at the end of the year. Senate leaders say they’ll need to extend it — possibly through a separate measure that would keep the government funded — to buy more time for negotiations.

But in the House, Republicans are pressuring newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to pass a new farm bill this year.

On Friday, House Agriculture Committee ranking member David Scott (D-Ga.) called on the committee to pass a temporary one-year extension to the bill instead. “The extremism and cynicism that has taken hold of the broader House Republican Conference makes a five-year farm bill reauthorization by the year’s end increasingly unlikely,” he said.

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Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/4292953-farm-bill-battle-gop-push-crop-subsidies-climate-snap-funding/