Vital empty Senate chair hands Dems knife to gut GOP's biggest bill: analysis
Congressional Democrats are playing hardball on the farm bill, and with the midterms approaching, they appear to see little reason to fold.
The clearest sign came at an Aug. 6 markup, where Democrats blocked the bill from advancing in the Senate Agriculture Committee — pushing any further action to September at the earliest – and they're using SNAP as leverage, reported MS NOW.
"For decades, the farm bill has relied on a simple bargain: Republicans get aid for the farmers they largely represent, and Democrats get nutrition assistance for the voters who send them to Congress," the network reported.
That bargain has allowed the two parties to negotiate their differences and get farm bill passed every few years, but now Republicans are grappling with a problem of their own making after passing massive cuts to food assistance.
Last year's reconciliation package cut $187 billion from the food assistance program, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates enrollment has since fallen by more than 4.5 million people.
Democrats want states with high "error rates" — a measure of improper payments — given two years to fix their administration of SNAP before facing forced cost-sharing or benefit cuts. Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) countered with a one-year delay instead, calling it "the best, and it's the final offer" – but Democrats didn't take it.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) described the standoff as a matter of fairness to SNAP recipients. "I want to support the farm bill," he said. "But I want to make sure that I'm fair to my state and fair to the people who are receiving SNAP benefits."
With Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) absent from the committee, the GOP's margin is thinner than usual — giving Democrats real room to demand changes before letting the bill move to the floor, where Republicans need 60 votes regardless.
Boozman has accused Democrats of "holding hostage our farm community," but Democrats appear to be betting that the political cost of delay falls more heavily on Republicans, especially as rural approval of President Donald Trump has dropped to 44 percent amid rising fuel and fertilizer costs.
Because the GOP is simultaneously pursuing a separate $12 billion farmer aid package through reconciliation — which only needs a simple majority — Democrats have even less incentive to hand Republicans an easy bipartisan win on the farm bill itself.
Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, has argued that reconciliation aid "doesn't scratch the surface" of farmers' real problems, positioning Democrats as holding out for substance rather than optics.
The result is a bill facing a squeeze from both directions: Republicans eager to change the subject with reconciliation checks, and Democrats unwilling to bail out a farm bill that punishes SNAP recipients — all while the clock runs out before November.