Huffman Votes Against Farm Bill

June 21, 2013

WASHINGTON­—Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) voted against the House Farm Bill last night. The House Farm Bill was defeated by a bipartisan vote of 195-234.

“It’s unfortunate that the House GOP leadership has once again allowed the Tea Party fringe to thwart an opportunity for important, bipartisan legislation. The bipartisan Senate Farm Bill should have been our starting point, but instead, some of the most extreme ideologues in the House loaded the bill up with outrageous and painful provisions, from the King amendment to undermine food safety and harm California egg producers, to massive subsidies for corporate agribusiness, to the attacks on SNAP that would have left millions of Americans hungry,” Congressman Huffman said. “Now that it has been defeated, let’s hope the House leadership places people before ideology and allows a workable, bipartisan Farm Bill to come to the floor for a vote.”

Congressman Huffman opposed a number of provisions in the Farm Bill, including:

  • $20 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). 47 million, or one in seven Americans, receives SNAP benefits. Nearly 75% of SNAP recipients are families with children, and more than a quarter of SNAP recipients are households with seniors or people with disabilities. Under the House Farm Bill, 850,000 households would lose an average of $90—nearly a full week’s worth of groceries—per month. These cuts would eliminate food assistance to nearly two million low-income Americans, and shuts 210,000 children out of free or reduced-cost school meals. Huffman participated in the SNAP Challenge for five days, limiting himself to $4.50 per day for food, the average daily benefit for a SNAP.
     
  • Cuts to SNAP registration by allowing states to end benefits for residents who do not work at least 20 hours per week—including people with disabilities, parents of young children who don’t have child care, and those who are just unable to find work in the community.
     
  • The King Amendment, which: nullifies wide range of state food safety laws, including labeling, labor, and environmental protection, harming a number of agriculture industries. This includes significant harm to California egg farmers, as it would nullify Proposition 2, a 2008 initiative that requires California farmers to give egg-laying hens enough room to stand and spread their wings.
     
  • An additional $8.9 billion per year in crop insurance subsidies without sufficient safeguards for taxpayers and the environment. Blocks the Department of Agriculture from re-negotiating reimbursement rates for crop insurers in order to reduce the deficit. Fails to include basic and reasonable limits to the crop insurance subsidy program by reducing subsidies for the wealthiest farmers.
     
  • Reduced acres of land that may be enrolled in the conservation programs from 35 million acres to 24 million acres, cutting support for conservation by $4.8 billion over 10 years.
     
  • An amendment that increases instability in milk prices and hurts small dairy farmers.