A new farm bill being crafted by the House Agriculture Committee includes deeper cuts to the food stamp program than those included in legislation that passed the Senate last year, setting up a potential fight with House and Senate Democrats who oppose additional cuts to the program.
The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Frank D. Lucas, Republican of Oklahoma, is proposing to cut $20 billion from the food stamp program in the version of the farm bill that lawmakers will begin working on next Tuesday, up from the $16 billion in cuts that were in the House bill last year. The food stamp program, which is officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, provides nutritional assistance to low income families and individuals and makes up the bulk of the farm bill, accounting for nearly 70 percent of spending in the 2008 legislation, the last time it was signed into law.
The new House version of the farm bill is expected to save about $38 billion over 10 years, about $3 billion more than last year’s bill, which passed in committee but failed to come to the House floor for a full vote, derailed primarily because of fights over the food stamp program. Several conservative lawmakers wanted deeper cuts than those proposed by Mr. Lucas and Representative Collin C. Peterson of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the committee.
During a committee vote last year, Mr. Lucas sided with Democrats and a few Republicans in defeating amendments to cut food stamps even more deeply, including one by Representative Tim Huelskamp, Republican of Kansas, that would have doubled the cuts in the program to $33 billion.
The deeper cuts to food stamps are expected to run into resistance from lawmakers on the Senate Agriculture Committee, particularly Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York. The Senate bill would also cut food stamps, shaving the program by $4.1 billion over ten years, slightly less than the $4.5 billion proposed last year.
Ms. Gillibrand fought against cuts in the food stamp program in the Senate bill last year and proposed instead cutting the federal crop insurance program, which pays farmers for drops in crop yields or revenue.
The government pays about 62 percent of the insurance premiums for farmers. The policies are sold by 15 private insurance companies that receive about $1.3 billion annually from the government. The government also backs the companies against losses.
The Senate, which passed it version of the farm bill, voted down Ms. Gillibrand’s proposal 66 to 33.
Ms. Gillibrand said she will oppose the cuts to food stamps again this year.
“So I don’t know under what world our colleagues think these cuts are acceptable, but tightening our belts around the waists of children and veterans and active duty service members is not how we should be balancing our debt and deficit,†she said during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.
