Press Releases
What They Are Saying: Groups Oppose Partisan Farm Bill
Washington,
May 20, 2024
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Britton T. Burdick
Tags:
Full Committee
WASHINGTON – National, state, and local leaders and groups oppose the House Republicans' partisan farm bill. The bill would institute the largest cut to SNAP, America's most effective anti-poverty program, in nearly 30 years. Additionally, it rescinds critical funds for climate-smart agricultural practices secured by House Democrats in the Inflation Reduction Act and limits the ability of the USDA to support farmers during natural disasters and other emergencies. Faith Community Evangelical Environmental Network: “Through the Inflation Reduction Act, a promise was made to our farmers: to support them in implementing climate-smart agriculture practices. In addition to being climate-smart, these practices are also water-smart, soil- smart, and smart for our farmers’ bottom line.” Reverand Susan Hendershot, President, Interfaith Power and Light: “We do not support a partisan Farm Bill proposal that pits funding for nutrition assistance, including SNAP benefits, and conservation funding against each other. Instead, we call for a Farm Bill that protects these programs, along with protecting the $20 billion allocated for climate-smart agriculture in the Inflation Reduction Act and firmly integrating it into the core of the Farm Bill with climate guardrails.” Daren Caughron, Sustainable Energy and Environment Legislative Manager, Friends Committee on National Legislation: “The framework released by the House Committee on Agriculture [Republicans] fails to meet the standards for a bipartisan Farm Bill that works towards ending hunger and supporting farmer’s resilience to extreme weather. Proposals to remove “guardrails” protecting conservation investments and cuts to nutrition funding will pit critical nutrition and conservation programs against one another, rather than underscoring the deep importance of both components.” Labor Community Lee Saunders, President, AFSCME: "AFSCME members do the essential work of processing SNAP benefits, keeping food on the table for millions – including veterans, seniors, children and more. Now, bad policy in the proposed farm bill puts this vital service in jeopardy. It threatens the food security of our most vulnerable communities in order to line the pockets of private companies. It also threatens the jobs of essential workers who have dedicated their careers to helping others. We urge the committee to vote no on this partisan farm bill proposal."
Ademola Oyefeso, International Vice President and Director of the Legislative and Political Action Department, UFCW: "The Farm Bill framework being considered by the House Agriculture Committee fails food workers and the communities they serve. This bill includes no mention of the millions of food workers who are drivers of this economy and would cut SNAP benefits overtime. We urge members of Congress to vote no on this partisan Farm Bill when it comes to a vote in the House Agriculture Committee and oppose any harmful amendments." Marc Egan, Director of Government Relations, National Education Association: "We oppose the bill because of proposed changes to the Thrifty Food Plan — that will weaken the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and erode benefits for participants. NEA members are teachers and education support professionals in 14,000 communities throughout urban, suburban, and rural America. These educators know firsthand that hungry students cannot focus on learning. We urge you to strengthen SNAP so that it will improve low-income families’ health and well-being and help prepare students for learning."
Environmental Community Cristel Zoebisch, Director of Policy, Carbon180: “We urge lawmakers to focus on a bipartisan final Farm Bill that maintains the integrity of climate safeguards included in the Inflation Reduction Act and supports a broad set of innovative approaches to building strong agriculture and forestry systems.” Andrew Lentz, Director of Federal Affairs for Agriculture Policy, Environmental Defense Fund: “The removal of climate-focused funding in these programs is a step backward at a time when we need to be moving forward with greater urgency. Stripping these resources away will undermine farmers’ and ranchers’ ability to adapt and thrive in the face of increasingly challenging growing conditions.” Environmental Working Group: “Environmental Working Group (EWG) strongly opposes the farm bill proposed last week and instead urges you to develop a farm bill that reduces hunger, supports all farmers, preserves the rights of state and local governments, and helps farmers who seek USDA assistance to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare their farms for extreme weather.” Mattea Mrkusic, Senior Energy Transition Policy Lead, Evergreen Action: “The GOP’s draft farm bill removes vital climate ‘guardrails’ to conservation programs that are already improving water and soil quality, boosting rural economies, and fighting climate change across the country. It’s bad policy, and even worse politics. Democrats have made it clear for months that they won’t support any bill that eliminates the climate guardrails. This bill doesn’t stand a chance in the Senate. It’s time for House Republicans to get real and work with Democrats to draft a farm bill that maintains this popular and necessary funding.” Madeleine Foote, Healthy Communities Program Director, League of Conservation Voters: “House Agriculture Committee Chair GT Thompson caved to the demands of extreme MAGA Republicans who are not serious about working in a bipartisan way to protect our farmers, communities, and environment. The proposal from the Republican-led House would strip money from climate-smart agricultural practices and conservation programs that are already oversubscribed, even after the increased investments from Inflation Reduction Act, taking money out of the hands of farmers who want to leave a better environment and a more sustainable food system to feed our families for generations to come.” Mike Lavender, Policy Director, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition: “The Farm, Food, and National Security Act fundamentally fails to meet the moment. The bill dramatically increases subsidies yet takes no meaningful steps toward building a fair, responsible, and accessible farm safety net. It stubbornly dismisses climate change – in part by decoupling the climate-focus from conservation investments – while countless farmers and ranchers nationwide experience the worsening impacts of a changing climate.” Melissa Kaplan, Senior Manager of Government Affairs, Union of Concerned Scientists: “The bill is out of line with what the public wants and our food system needs. People across the country strongly support programs that help farmers protect their farms from extreme weather, like those funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. They also support protecting the workers who keep our country fed and want to ensure that small- scale, diverse and young farmers have equitable access to land, credit, and other vital resources. The [Republican] House bill fails in these respects.” Mitch Jones, Managing Director of Policy Litigation, Food & Water Watch: ““The Farm Bill is a seminal opportunity to reform our food and agriculture sector away from factory farms and corporate greed. Instead, House Republicans want to double down. Some of leadership’s more dangerous proposals would take us backwards on animal welfare, and climate-smart agriculture — both The EATS Act and support for factory farm biogas must be dead on arrival. It’s time Congress put the culture wars aside and got back to work on a Farm Bill that puts consumers, farmers, and the environment above politicking and Big Ag handouts.” Mike Lavender, Policy Director, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition: “A bill that closely mirrors the latest House summary is not a bill that should become law.” Anti-Hunger Community Emily Gee, Vice President for Inclusive Growth, Center for American Progress: “This partisan farm bill contains unacceptable cuts to vital nutrition programs and guts critical investments in climate-smart agriculture. It would also prevent any adjustment to food benefits, which would result in more people going hungry.” Ty Jones Cox, Vice President for Food Assistance, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: "Every SNAP participant would receive less to buy groceries in future years than they would under current law, putting a healthy diet out of reach for millions of people. This would be the largest cut to SNAP since 1996 if enacted & these cuts would grow even deeper over time."
Anupama Joshi, Vice President of Programs, Center for Science in the Public Interest: “The bill attacks SNAP benefits, cuts key climate-smart agriculture programs, guts the evidence-based process used to update the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and meddles recklessly with school meal nutrition standards. As written, the [Republican farm bill] undercuts our nation’s food and nutrition security. CSPI stands with the overwhelming majority of food, farm, and hunger organizations that are calling on the House Agriculture Committee to abandon its cruel and dead-on-arrival bill in favor of the traditional bipartisan approach that has historically shaped this important legislation.” Feeding America: "The significance of the farm bill in combating food insecurity in the United States cannot be overstated. We’ve heard from our neighbors facing hunger that food insecurity should be treated as an urgent crisis and, unfortunately, the bill text the House Agriculture Committee released today is cause for concern." Kelly Horton, Interim President, Food Research & Action Center: “The House Farm Bill text released today by House Agriculture Committee Chair G.T. Thompson poses a serious threat to the health and wellbeing of the more than 41.4 million people who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to put food on the table.” HEAL Food Alliance: “Today, 44.2 million people, including over 13 million children, live in food insecure households, yet this bill will slash the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $27 billion. Although the bill improves SNAP eligibility for certain demographics such as college students, it will restrict the USDA’s ability to set SNAP benefits, eroding nutrition programs' long-term ability to provide access to vulnerable families and communities across the country.” James Beard Foundation: “We are concerned about the House of Representatives version of the farm bill, particularly the provisions regarding conservation funding for climate-smart agriculture and proposals to weaken and cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).” Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO, MomsRising: “At this time when skyrocketing food prices have increased hunger and food insecurity, forcing tens of millions of U.S. families to make impossible choices between food and other essentials, it would be mean-spirited and shameful for Congress to cut the SNAP benefits moms and families rely on; and it also would be damaging to our economy. Yet this is exactly what the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024, introduced by U.S. House Republican leadership today, would do. Its impact would be devastating.” Oregon Food Bank: “The House Farm Bill proposal, put forth by House Agriculture Chair Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson, cuts SNAP benefits for all participants by freezing the USDA’s ability to update the Thrifty Food Plan to accurately reflect the cost of a healthy, realistic diet accurately.” Gina Cummings, Vice President for Advocacy, Alliances, and Policy, Oxfam: “The House must reject must reject the provisions of the American Farmers Feed the World Act included in the House Farm Bill draft as the bill goes for markup. The inclusion of such provisions is a threat to global food security and a shift towards a less-efficient model of international aid by the United States.” UnidosUS: “House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson’s proposed cuts to SNAP benefits threaten to undermine this vital support system and deepen the hunger crisis in Latino communities.” Animal Welfare Community Other Christina Stucker-Gassi, Policy Lead, Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides: “NCAP strongly opposes the current farm bill draft and advocates for a bill that reduces hunger, supports all farmers, preserves local rights, and helps farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions while adapting alternatives to changing pest and disease regimes.” Melissa Kaplan, Senior Manager of Government Affairs, Union of Concerned Scientists: “The bill is out of line with what the public wants and our food system needs. People across the country strongly support programs that help farmers protect their farms from extreme weather, like those funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. They also support protecting the workers who keep our country fed and want to ensure that small- scale, diverse and young farmers have equitable access to land, credit, and other vital resources. The [Republican] House bill fails in these respects.” |