The House of Representatives and House Republican leadership recently took a bold step to separate the Farm Bill into farm policy and feeding programs (aka food stamps). When asked for a reaction, the most common answer in my farm community is “it’s about time.”
We have allowed Congress to fall into a pattern of megabills too large for anyone but full-time lobbyists to read and understand. Focusing on issues separately allows for more transparency, better debate and less opportunity for brokered back scratching.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food stamps program’s formal name, is a relatively recent addition to the Farm Bill, and has nothing to do with providing a market for U.S. farmers. It has everything to do with forcing urban Congressional attention to farm policy, the ultimate national security issue. Bluntly — it buys urban votes.
The House Republican leadership understands voter frustration with thousand-page bills that have to be passed before anyone knows what’s in them. Megabills are written by special interests and will always be inherently flawed, as the continued unwelcome surprises and exemptions granted in the roll out of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) demonstrate.
