Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says Congress should look outside the nutrition title to address funding issues in the upcoming farm bill.
The comments come as many Capitol Hill Republicans say there should be “more farm in the farm bill” and look to curb the growth of spending on nutrition assistance programs.
Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee have suggested imposing restrictions on USDA updates to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit calculations and shifting the $30 billion in savings to other areas of the farm bill.
“I don't think that the 41 million or so Americans should necessarily sacrifice in order to create more resources for a relatively small number, when there are other options available to Congress to resolve the issues within the Farm Bill,” Vilsack said Tuesday.
The Biden administration's 2021 update of the Thrifty Food Plan — the formula used to determine SNAP benefits — and additional updates that must be done every five years have led the Congressional Budget Office to increase its estimate of SNAP spending to $1.2 trillion over the next decade. The nutrition title now accounts for more than 80% of the projected cost of farm bill programs,
An idea currently being floated by GOP Capitol Hill staffers would curtail future TFP rewrites. Republicans argue that the provision would keep a Republican administration from cutting SNAP benefits, but key Democrats have rejected the proposal.
Vilsack also noted the debt ceiling deal reached by President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which included language to raise the age for work requirements under SNAP from 49 to 54 but also added exemptions from those requirements for veterans, youth leaving foster care, and the homeless. The nation’s top ag official argues that should be the extent of the changes.
“That was a deal, that was a handshake; where I come from, when you make a deal, you’ve got to keep a deal,” Vilsack said. “I would be surprised if the Senate Democrats don’t feel the same way.”
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Vilsack also maintained USDA’s calls for full funding of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — better known as WIC — in the upcoming appropriations process. He noted the support of Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and ranking Republican Susan Collins of Maine and said WIC has “always been a program for the last 25 years that has been fully and adequately funded.”
Vilsack made the comments during a visit to D.C. Central Kitchen, a community kitchen a short drive south of the U.S. Capitol building. After a tour of the facility — which packages some 11,000 meals per day for local schools, conducts regular culinary job training programs, and employs about 240 people — Vilsack sat for a roundtable discussion with producers who sell produce to the nonprofit and retailers who sell it through the Healthy Corners program in Washington.
The facility serves as a model of sorts for Vilsack’s idea for a reshaped farm income stream, which includes local food distribution as a major component of the diversified revenue opportunities.
“As we look at small and mid-sized farming operations in the country, we look for creating a local and regional food system that speaks directly to these small and mid-sized producers so that they don't necessarily have to compete in a circumstance or situation where it's about size and technology,” he said. “We need a complementary system.”
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