How Some Farm Bill Provisions Help Special Interests – And Hurt the Taxpayer

The New Farm Bill, which is expected to be up for a vote in the Senate today:

Spends More than the Senate Bill. The Senate farm bill would have reduced farm bill spending by only $17.8 billion despite the fact that spending has gotten out of hand. For example, food stamp spending has quadrupled since 2000. This new bill would actually reduce spending by an even smaller amount, only about $16.5 billion. This is in contrast to the House bill that would have reduced spending by about $51.8 billion.

Fails to Make Important Reforms to Food Stamps. The House bill took modest steps to require work for able-bodied adult food stamp recipients. Their bill also eliminated a policy known as broad-based categorical eligibility that allows households with even an unlimitedamount of assets to receive food stamps: for instance, someone could have $100,000 in the bank and still receive food stamps. The Senate bill didn’t address either of these issues. The final farm bill only includes the weakest of work provisions and turns a blind eye to the problem of broad-based categorical eligibility.
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