WASHINGTON, March 29, 2012- The House approved Rep. Paul Ryan's, R-Wis., fiscal 2013 budget with a partisan 228-191 vote today. The budget blueprint reshapes the tax code, overhauls Medicare and lowers the spending cap agreed to in last year's debt limit agreement.

The budget includes reconciliation instructions which require the Agriculture Committee to provide legislation within the next month that cuts agriculture spending by $33.2 billion over ten years. The budget also reduces approximately $123 billion from nutrition programs by converting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) into block grants to states.


House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin C. Peterson, D-Minn., voted against the resolution and said today’s vote was “not helpful” to the Farm Bill process.
“Passing a farm bill this year was already going to be difficult but the Republican Budget approved by the House today lowers the odds significantly,” he said. “I have a hard time seeing how the House can pass a farm bill after going through this process. I also don’t see how we could extend the current bill without making some of the cuts called for by the Majority.”
 According to the House Agriculture Democrats, the Ryan budget would cut a total of $179.4 billion from all Agriculture Committee programs over ten years.
 

Ryan’s budget, while expected to fail in the Democrat-controlled Senate, is being used as a contrast to President Barack Obama’s budget proposal and an example of Republican deficit reduction plans to be used in this year’s presidential campaign efforts. 

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"We think America's on the wrong track. We believe the president is bringing us toward a debt crisis and a welfare state in decline," Ryan said on the floor. 

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