Washington, D.C. — Today, by a vote of 198-213, House Republicans failed to secure the support necessary to pass their Farm Bill, which would have slashed nutrition assistance to millions of Americans. Jacob Leibenluft, executive vice president for Policy at the Center for the American Progress, issued the following statement in response:
The defeat of House Republicans’ cruel Farm Bill is a welcome relief for the millions of families for whom the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps put food on the table. This bill would have taken food assistance away from more than 2 million Americans and stripped 265,000 children of automatic access to free school meals. But House Republicans were unable to secure the votes they needed for passage in part because some in their caucus thought the bill’s cuts weren’t harsh enough.
The Farm Bill is a clear indication of congressional Republicans’ priorities. Just months after giving massive tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations, they are now trying to take food away from millions of children, seniors, people with disabilities, veterans, and workers struggling to put food on the table. Put in perspective, the tax cuts for the richest 1 percent of households in the Republican tax plan cost more than the entire annual budget for SNAP.
House Republicans should go back to the drawing board and work with Democrats on a bipartisan Farm Bill that protects SNAP and invests in workers. The American people have had enough of these political games.
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