Washington, D.C. — Today, the Senate Agriculture Committee released its bipartisan Farm Bill. Jacob Leibenluft, executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement in response:
The bipartisan Senate farm bill offers a marked improvement over the House of Representatives’ failed partisan bill, which would take away nutrition assistance from more than 2 million people and bar 265,000 children from receiving automatic access to free school meals. While it doesn’t include certain needed improvements, such as making the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s (SNAP) meager benefits more adequate, the legislation maintains SNAP, which helps millions of families across the country put food on the table.
The Senate draft also preserves bedrock environmental laws and conservation funding previously threatened in the House’s failed proposal.
We urge both chambers to advance the bipartisan Senate bill without poison pill amendments that undermine nutrition for millions of families.
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Kyle Epstein at [email protected] or 202.481.8137.