CHC Statement on Passage of Farm Bill in Committee

Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Agriculture Committee marked up and passed H.R. 2 – the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 – commonly known as the Farm Bill. This version of the Farm Bill makes dramatic changes and cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. SNAP is a temporary program that helps Americans struggling with food insecurity and poverty provide their children and families the sustenance they need to be healthy. SNAP is a powerful anti-poverty program for Hispanic families and Americans in both urban and rural communities across the country. In a typical month in 2016, SNAP helped about 10 million Latinos put sufficient food on the table, and lifted about 2.5 million Latinos, including 1.2 million children, out of poverty in 2015.[1]

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM-1) and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Agriculture Taskforce Chairman Jim Costa (D-CA-16) released the following statement regarding the Farm Bill considered in the House committee today:

"It is extremely alarming that the House Agriculture Committee voted out of Committee a partisan Farm Bill that hurts families, children, and vulnerable Americans by making drastic, unnecessary changes to SNAP. These changes would erect burdensome obstacles to nutrition benefits and would kick an estimated one million hunger- and poverty-stricken Americans from the program. Not only are the impacts of these changes morally reprehensible, they will hurt farmers, our communities, and the U.S. economy.

"For over 40 years, the Farm Bill has united our country in our efforts to support the farmers that work to feed American families and to fight poverty and food insecurity in America. The bill has traditionally brought together the concerns of rural and urban communities, food producers and consumers, and Democrats and Republicans, in a bipartisan manner. This Farm Bill, however, is the latest victim to uncompromising partisanship and, as a result, fails to meet the needs of our country and American families.

"While there are some provisions in the bill we support, we cannot support this Farm Bill package, which hurts hard-working American families and their children. It is our hope that the Senate Agriculture Committee honors its pledge to work in a bipartisan manner and introduces legislation that not only supports our nation's farmers and ranchers, but also strengthens and preserves SNAP. This is the type of serious policy, good governance, and bipartisanship our nation needs and deserves."

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