Two top Republican lawmakers are throwing a wrench into their own party’s budget strategy as they made clear they would reject proposed cuts to food assistance programs that were expected to help fund what President Donald Trump has dubbed the “big, beautiful bill” on taxes, immigration and defense.”
That’s according to the Washington Post, which reported Thursday that the chairs of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees – Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) and Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) – said they won’t support reductions to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Thompson told the Post he would not support a redesign of the benefit formula that the Trump administration claims would result in billions of dollars in savings, while Boozman said that he is “not in favor of reducing benefits.”
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“Those declarations could scramble Republicans’ bid to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts while slashing trillions of dollars in spending from the federal budget,” the Post noted Thursday. “The GOP is working to pass the legislation through a process called ‘reconciliation’ to allow the Senate to bypass a Democratic filibuster.”
Thompson added in his comments to the publication that his House committee can’t realistically meet the $230 billion in cuts called for in the GOP budget framework passed last month.
“I think it may have to be less than that,” Thompson reportedly said. However, Thompson said his committee is on the verge of capping the president’s ability to broaden food assistance benefits without congressional approval.
“That proposal would save $30 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, lawmakers’ nonpartisan bookkeeper,” the Post reported.
