From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (http://www.cbpp.org):
June ended with a huge victory in our efforts to protect food assistance for millions of people: The Senate passed a farm bill that protects and strengthens SNAP by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 86–11. The Senate bill — and its strong, bipartisan margin of passage — reflects your hard work on SNAP over the last few months and stands in sharp contrast to the harmful and partisan House farm bill that narrowly passed earlier in June.
Now we must work hard to ensure that the final bill contains the Senate’s SNAP provisions. The House and Senate are expected to announce their appointees to the conference committee this month, but we don’t expect a formal meeting of the conferees before the House goes out for recess. The Republican House and Senate leaders want to pass a final farm bill before September 30, which is when the current farm bill expires.
Regardless of who is appointed to the conference committee, we anticipate that most of the negotiations will happen behind the scenes and in consultation with congressional leaders, as is often the case. As such, members who are not on the conference committee can play a role (also typically behind the scenes) in urging the committee members and congressional leaders to reach a certain agreement. Every member of Congress can help protect SNAP by expressing their support for a final farm bill that contains the Senate’s SNAP provisions and directly communicating that to leadership.
Senate Majority Leader McConnell must ensure that any farm bill agreement can get the necessary 60 votes in the Senate. That gives us leverage since it’s pretty clear that McConnell will not be able to secure 60 votes unless the final farm bill protects SNAP, as the Senate bill does.
Here are the top actions you can take over the next few weeks to protect SNAP:
- Most timely: Reach out to your representatives (especially moderate Republicans) to urge them to call for a final conference agreement on the farm bill that incorporates the Senate’s strong bipartisan SNAP provisions. Find contact information for your Representative at http://www.house.gov.
- Thank your senators who voted for the Senate farm bill (Senator Casey voted Yes, Senator Toomey voted No) and ask them to work with Sens. Roberts and Stabenow (the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee) to ensure that the final conference agreement retains the Senate’s strong bipartisan SNAP provisions. Find PA Senators’ contact information:
Senator Robert Casey: http://casey.senate.gov
Senator Pat Toomey: http://toomey.senate.gov
- Spread the message in the media that the Senate farm bill is the right path forward and the final farm bill should contain the Senate’s SNAP provisions. Consider writing letters to the editor (repetition helps!). Also, consider hosting town halls and community forums for people to learn about SNAP and how they can take action.
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