Farm Bill agreement expected this week, with final passage within days

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Farm Bill agreement expected this week, with final passage within days

BY ED O'KEEFE
January 26 at 1:43 pm

A final version of the Farm Bill, legislation that accounts for billions of dollars in federal spending and has lingered on the congressional to-do list for two years, is expected to be unveiled as early as Monday, with final passage likely in the coming days, according to several aides familiar with the talks.

If an agreement is finalized Monday, senior House aides said that Republican leaders will bring the measure up for a vote in the House, where they believe it will pass with sufficient bipartisan support. The bill would then move to the Senate and likely be approved before a mid-February recess.

"We remain optimistic that we can reach agreement in time to be on the floor next week," House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank D. Lucas (R-Okla.) said in a message to his colleagues sent over the weekend. The message asked members working on the legislation to return to Washington in time for a possible meeting Monday morning. Aides later said that signatures of support for the compromise were being collected in case not enough lawmakers returned in time.

The legislation couples together billions of dollars in funding for food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, with myriad concerns regarding all aspects of farming, from price support programs, to important details of food labeling and the treatment of livestock. Supporters often note that the bill affects roughly 16 million jobs in the agricultural sector, making it one of the largest jobs bills Congress has debated in recent years.

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Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/01/26/farm-bill-agreement-expected-this-week-with-final-passage-within-days/

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Cuts to food stamps. How lovely.

We are lucky to have such fine Americans in Congress.

Many of them consider themselves to be first-rate Christians, you know.

[elleng]

2. 'The sensitive subject of food stamp money was settled weeks ago.

Plans call for eliminating about $9 billion in SNAP funding over the next decade by tweaking the rules of a federal heating assistance program that some states use to determine a person's eligibility for food aid, according to aides familiar with the negotiations. The cuts are a compromise between a proposed $4 billion cut in food stamp money approved by the Senate in June and nearly $40 billion in cuts approved by the House as Republicans sought to overhaul eligibility requirements for SNAP.

Although many liberals and conservatives are expected to reject the food stamp compromise as too severe or insufficient, House and Senate lawmakers and aides still expect the overall bill to easily pass -- if only so that Congress can move on to other issues.'