The House Narrowly Passes Its Version of Farm Bill

The House cleared its version of the farm bill Thursday on its second try with a vote of 213-211. Members of the House approved the bill which includes work requirements for some food stamp recipients under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It’s something democrats oppose.

“It provides a work requirement for those on food stamps [who] are work capable,” said Rodney Davis, (R-IL). “We are going to be paid for people to be trained, get off government benefits and get out of the cycle of poverty.”

The House will now wait for the Senate to vote on its version. Davis says he hopes the House can move the bill to committee with the Senate very quickly once its version has a vote.

“That gives me a chance and many a chance to dive into the specifics of what the Senate proposes versus what [the House] propose,” said Davis. “There are a lot of issues in the farm bill that came out of the house that didn’t get addressed that I would like to see more investment in ag research, for example. [I’d like to see that] we can work with our democrat and republican counterparts in the Senate. This is how we passed the farm bill in 2014 and it should be how we pass the farm bill in 2018.”

Senate is expected to vote on its version of the farm bill next week.