$60B farm bill

House Republicans eye adding $60B farm bill package in Trump megabill

Senior Republicans want to pay for it by shifting some SNAP food aid benefit costs to states for the first time.

Meredith Lee Hill

House Republicans are aiming to add $60 billion in farm bill programs to the agriculture portion of the GOP’s megabill. But they’ll have to convince several centrist holdouts to vote for a controversial proposal that pushes some food aid costs onto states in order to do it.

The proposed farm bill safety net package includes roughly $50 billion for crop reference prices, as well as money for crop insurance, dairy, livestock biosecurity, export trade promotion and so-called farm bill orphan programs, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks.

Senior Republicans want to pay for that additional farm bill piece of the package by shifting some federal spending for food aid benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to states for the first time. But they’re still awaiting an official estimate from the Congressional Budget Office on the cost-share plan that will determine the size of the farm bill package and whether the panel can reach the $230 billion in spending cuts it’s responsible for, given deep opposition from hard-liners for any unpaid for pieces of the megabill.

Still, panel Republicans argue they need to include the new funding given the formal, traditionally bipartisan farm bill has been long-delayed amid partisan fights. Senate Republicans, however, are privately skeptical the package can survive the Senate, where Republicans are already vowing to kill off much of the SNAP cost-share plan.

Backlash from centrists and other lawmakers has already forced Agriculture panel Republicans to alter their original cost-sharing plan by skewing the financial burden to states with higher payment error rates, which includes red states like Alaska and South Carolina. Last week, GOP leaders had to delay the Agriculture panel’s initial expected markup.

Some Republicans are still uneasy even with the reworked plan. GOP Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, Zach Nunn of Iowa and other more at-risk Republicans have all raised concerns about House Republicans’ plans triggering benefit cuts across SNAP and Medicaid.

But on Thursday, Bacon said forcing Republicans to revise the plan to push just 10 percent of SNAP costs to states with lower error rates was “a victory.”

Time is running out to get remaining holdouts onboard. The Agriculture panel has locked in its markup for President Donald Trump’s megabill for Tuesday.

“Chairman [G.T.] Thompson [R-Pa.] has not been shy that all options are on the table to secure a stronger safety net for our hardworking farmers,” committee spokesperson Ben Goldey said.