Opinion: Kansas lawmakers in D.C. stand aside as Farm Bill writers raid SNAP — again

A Holstein cow peers through the barrier of a dairy farm in Hamilton County, Kansas. (Allison Kite / Kansas Reflector)

By Greg Frazier, Special to the Kansas Reflector

“I do not believe the bill goes far enough in insuring that the truly needy are able to participate in the food stamp program.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kansas

Me neither, Sen. Dole.

But they’re at it again. Last year, Republicans on the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, with the support of Kansas Rep. Tracey Mann, wrote a Farm Bill. It went nowhere, not even a vote in the full House of Representatives. The Senate Ag Committee didn’t even write a bill. Congress missed its second deadline to extend the 2018 Farm Bill.

Why? That bill destroyed the coalition that has united to pass every farm bill of the last 50 years. Farm interests join supporters of food assistance programs to back one comprehensive piece of legislation. Nutrition advocates revolted against the draconian cuts in food stamps — now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP — and farmers don’t have the votes by themselves to pass a Farm Bill in the House.

With the extension of the extension ending in just four months Republicans are running the same play and running scared. They have raided SNAP of $60 billion for new farm subsidies, plus another $230 billion for tax cuts for the wealthy. Low-income families lose $5, with $1 going into a farmer’s pocket and $4 into a rich taxpayer’s bank account. The House Agriculture Committee passed it on a party-line vote; the Republican Mann voted yes while Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids voted no.

Two strikes are enough. Farm lawmakers are using money dedicated to putting food on hungry families’ tables like a bottomless checkbook — a private cookie jar — to increase subsidies to millionaire farmers. Now that the House has passed pieces of the Farm Bill as part of President Trump’s tax cut package (the Kansas delegation split along party lines), the Senate is taking a look. Then, the House should rewrite its rules to take food stamps and nutrition assistance, along with overseas food aid, out of the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Committee.

It’s probably time to move SNAP out of the USDA, for good measure.

Aggies justify the monstrous boost in spending as necessary to protect farmers from “dire circumstances.” But maybe the circumstances wouldn’t be so dire if farmers were not facing a trade war triggered by Trump’s tariffs. Remember Trump Trade War I and the $20 billion shelled out to make up for that fiasco?

Instead of preventing a replay, Congress went along. Kansas Republicans in the House voted to support Trump Trade War II when they voted for a provision preventing the House from even considering legislation to end the tariffs. Kansas Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran twice voted against a measure in their chamber that would have done the same.

They saying they’re simply putting “farm back into the Farm Bill,” a quaint description of shoehorning $60 billion in new farm payments into one catch-all piece of legislation. The proposal includes every legislative cat and dog the president and the Republicans can corral — from tax breaks for millionaires to more money to carry out the Trump draconian, damn-due-process mass deportation scheme. (If anyone thinks Congress is taking its responsibilities seriously, look at the sophomoric title its backers gave the bill-a name I refuse to dignify by repeating.)

Lawmakers claim they’re simply asking SNAP recipients to work in exchange for benefits. That sounds reasonable. Democrats favor work too, along with ensuring workers are paid a living wage. However, there is little evidence the requirements the House champions will themselves work. Most research is ambiguous, but it suggests that paperwork and reporting requirements will deter prospective workers.

Moreover, the bill’s transfer of administrative costs to states may lead to even more cuts in cuts in assistance.

If you’re thinking how catchy the “putting the farm back into the Farm Bill” mantra sounds, consider: In the past 10 years, the top three Kansas farm program recipients cashed checks from Uncle Sam totaling more than $30 million. That doesn’t count payments they earned last year and their share of the $10 billion in emergency payments Congress appropriated in December.

The average Kansas SNAP beneficiary receives a little more than $200 per month, and none of them can “eat tariffs” to survive. Meanwhile, the House’s new Farm Bill will boost by $30,000 the limit on a single farmer’s payments. That’s not the maximum amount — that’s just the increase in the maximum amount.

Kansas representatives and senators have never shied from supporting farm spending. It’s Kansas Politics 101. Despite partisan differences, it’s one thing Sens. Dole, Kassebaum and Roberts and Reps. Glickman, Keys, Sebelius and Slattery all had in common. They also all supported a sound, effective, amply funded food and nutrition safety net.

Greg Frazier was involved in writing five farm bills, as USDA chief of staff and a House Agriculture Committee staff director. A Kansas native, he now lives in Kansas City. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

This article was republished with permission from the Kansas Reflector. The Kansas Reflector is a non-profit online news organization serving Kansas. For more information on the organization, go to its website at www.kansasreflector.com.