The U.S. House and Senate each have passed their versions of the 2019 Farm bill, but a bigger fight is coming when they try to combine them to a new law.
Last Thursday, The Senate passed its version of the $428 billion farm bill overwhelming, as 86 senators supporting it and 11 voting against. According to Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), their version has provisions that would help farmers sell their products directly to consumers, assist dairy farmers, and increase water quality in ares like Lake Erie. Plus Brown says that the Senate version also protects the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, by avoiding changes in eligibility that could effect current users. The House version which passed narrowly a week ago with no Democratic support, create work requirements on able-bodied adults seeking food stamps. Now the House and Senate will have to compromise, much like what the Senators did, before the farm bill will be able to become law.
“I am excited about what we have done bipartisanly," says Brown. "I have worked with Senators from both parties in Ohio and Indiana and Kentucky. This will be a good law if the House of Representatives gets it act together.”
The Senate and the House will begin drafting a final version of the 2019 Farm bill later this summer.
