Senate’s partisan draft Farm Bill is a disappointment: Fails families and farmers

Today, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman introduced legislative text for a Farm Bill. The proposed bill does not provide a path forward for families struggling with the high cost of food or support investments in building a strong food system. It is a disappointment, and demonstrative of policymakers choosing politics over people.  

The Senate version of the farm bill fails to protect the 37 million people, including 16 million children, who rely on SNAP. Following the House’s April passage of the damaging Farm, Food, and National Security Act (H.R. 7567), the Senate had an opportunity to take a different approach and restore SNAP funding. Instead, they put forth a partisan bill that would decimate the U.S. food safety net. It does not restore the nearly $187 billion in funding cuts over ten years for SNAP through H.R. 1, which represent the most devastating cut to SNAP in the program’s history. The proposed bill further fails to unwind damaging SNAP eligibility restrictions for lawfully present immigrants, which will leave an estimated 90,000 people ineligible for SNAP in a given month. 

The proposed bill also falls short on a number of other fronts. It does not restore funding cuts from last March for programs investing in local farmers and leveraging the purchasing power of food banks and schools. These cuts weaken the regional food system and limit healthy food access for children and families.  The proposed bill fails to expand the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP). Further, the bill enshrines the compromised 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans in statute and corrupts the process to update them in the future. 

We urge members of the Senate Agriculture Committee to vote no on this bill that does nothing to restore and protect SNAP, expand access to nutritious foods, support regional food systems, or advance evidence-based approaches to nutrition policy. Senators on both sides of the aisle should reject this bill and instead deliver a farm bill that meets the moment and puts families first.