Grassley, Ernst concede any new farm bill likely to include food stamps

WASHINGTON - While work won't officially start on the next farm bill for at least two more years, U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst are convinced the next bill, like the current one, will continue to combine traditional agriculture legislation with national nutritional programs.

The last farm bill, signed into law in early 2014 nearly two years behind schedule, languished amid disagreement on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.

In the House, efforts were made to cut as much as $40 billion from the food stamp program over a 10-year period. The Senate version of the bill included about $5 billion in cuts. Ultimately, a compromise of $8.7 billion in cuts over 10 years was agreed upon, easing farm advocates' fears that an impasse on food stamps would result in a total collapse of the farm bill, which provides farmers with billions in subsidies, crop insurance and conservation programs.

Even with the compromise in place, food stamps remain under scrutiny, prompting a steady drumbeat of calls for the nutrition programs to be shifted into their own legislation.

'I agree with that from a philosophical basis,” Grassley told The Gazette during an interview last week in Washington. 'But, when you look at it from a political point of view … if you want a farm bill, you're going to have to have something for the urban people, and that's the food stamp program.”

Removing SNAP from the equation, cautioned Grassley, means the farm bill would have little chance of gaining approval in the U.S. House, where few lawmakers are elected from agricultural districts.

Ernst had similar concerns about making the bill agriculture-only.

'I do believe they should be separate bills,” she told The Gazette. 'But … it is combined, and I don't see that we would come to a point in the near future when that is separated out.

'In today's political climate, if we were to try to focus on just our agricultural interests, there are many, many other members of Congress who would simply have no time to take up what we would think of as a farm bill,” she said. 'That wouldn't move us ahead. So, for now, they are combined, and they'll stay combined.”

About 82 percent of funding allocated through the farm bill goes to food stamps and other nutritional programs. Grassley says this gives the public a false impression of what the government provides to farmers.

'I get sick and tired of reading in the New York Times about the bloated, $800 million farm bill (when) only about 20 percent goes directly to agriculture. And, of that 20 percent, only a few percentage points - I don't know if it is 4, 5, or 6 - actually benefits the income of farmers.”

Because the farm bill is authorized over a five-year period, those involved in crafting it are evaluating newly implemented changes.

Ernst reported receiving feedback regarding U.S. Department of Agriculture housing programs, beginning farmer programs and agriculture connections for returning military members. Within those programs, there's some frustration and confusion, she said.

'A lot of it feels like a lot of bureaucracy, and we really would like to make things easier for those eligible for the programs,” Ernst said.

There might need to be some minor tweaks, Grassley said, but he's not heard of any significant problems in relation to the bill.