Congress Food

The Farm Bill Died in the House and That’s a Good Thing

It’s a good thing because, through the amendment process, House Republicans took an already-awful bill, which was awful enough to garner a veto threat from President Obama, and made it even worse.

In addition to cutting $2 billion from the SNAP program, the House also approved this.

The House late Wednesday voted to give states the authority to conduct drug testing on people applying for food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). [...]

Democrats were outraged at the proposal, and said that by proposing it, Republicans are implying that people on food stamps use drugs. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) said studies have shown people using SNAP are no more likely than nonusers to be using drugs.

And this.

The House today approved a stunning, extreme amendment to the farm bill from Rep. Steve Southerland (R-FL) that would allow states to require most adults who receive or apply for SNAP — including parents with children as young as 1 year old and many people with disabilities — to work or participate in a work or training program for at least 20 hours a week or else have their entire family’s SNAP benefits cut off.

The amendment provides no jobs and no funds for work or training programs, and it does not require states to make any work opportunities available. People who want to work and are looking for a job but haven’t found one could be cut off.

And the amendment gives states a powerful financial incentive to do this. It allows them to keep half of the savings from cutting these people off and to use the money for whatever they want — tax cuts, special-interest subsidies, or anything else.

And that’s just the tip of the shitberg, to quote John Oliver. The bill was so awful it couldn’t even be passed with a Republican majority.

The bill was defeated today by a margin of 195 to 234, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the bill will become significantly better before it comes up for another vote.