Monday, April 16, 2018

House's Farm Bill would cut food stamps drastically, allows agriculture secretary to declare rural health emergency

"The House version of a new Farm Bill released Thursday would allow the secretary of agriculture to declare a rural health emergency, making it easier to award grants and loans to community health facilities and telehealth programs," Bryce Oates and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder.

The bill doesn't name specific types of health emergencies, but prioritizes loans for facilities providing "recovery services," which could refer to the opioid epidemic. The emergency provision affects Title VI of the farm bill, which covers "rural utilities like electricity, phone, and broadband; community facilities; small business development; waste water and water treatment; and similar programs," Oates and Marema report. Trump proposed big cuts in those programs in 2017, but Congress hasn't followed through. 

The bill would also add more work requirements for an estimated 4 million to 5 million participants in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, and cut the program by about $93 billion over 10 years. Republicans have tried that before and failed. SNAP and other nutrition programs account for about 80 percent of Farm Bill spending.

Other facets of the bill include:
  • Reauthorization of the Delta Regional Commission and the Northern Great Plains Regional Authority at reduced funding levels.
  • Significant changes to conservation programs: the Conservation Reserve Program acreage cap would be increased from 20 million acres to 29 million acres over the next five years, and per-acre rental payments would be decreased. No new sign-ups would be permitted in the Conservation Stewardship Program. Funding would be increased for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
  • $255 million per year to develop international agricultural trade.

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