Harkin says splitting farm, food programs could destroy farm bill

Efforts in the Republican-controlled U.S. House to separate nutrition programs from the farm bill are bad news for farmers as well as people who use food stamps, Sen. Tom Harkin warned Thursday.

The Iowa Democrat is disappointed the House has not passed a five-year extension of the farm bill and, so far, has not appointed members to a conference committee to iron out differences between its version and the Senate's.

“It's going to destroy the farm bill unless they come to their senses over in the House,” said Harkin, a former Senate Ag Committee chairman.

The Senate approved a half-trillion dollar farm bill, which includes both the food stamp measures and farm and conservation programs, by a 66-27 margin. Senators cut food stamp funding by about $4 billion, or less than one-half of 1 percent.

However, a similar version, albeit with a $20 billion cut in food assistance, failed to pass in the House despite support from Iowa's four representatives. A stripped down version that did not include food stamps passed, but the Senate has little interest in that approach.

The fight over food stamp funding represents a partisan shift on the farm bill. In the past, farm bill fights tended to pit agricultural interests in one region of the country against another and commodity groups fighting for bigger slices of a shrinking pie.

Congress is on its annual August recess and won't be in session until September. According to some reports, House leadership expects to be in session only nine days next month, which would make it difficult for a conference committee to negotiate a version that could win passage in both chambers.

If that doesn't happen before the end of September, the farm bill expires and programs would revert to a decades-old version of the bill.

An option would be to extend the current bill.

“But I don't know if the House would do that,” Harkin said.