New representative Smith votes 'yes' for failed House farm bill

Again, the battle for a new federal farm bill was lost in Congress on Thursday as the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a version that would have cut food stamps by $2 billion a year among creating other reforms.

The half-trillion-dollar bill, if it were combined into a full version with a Senate bill passed last week, would have paid for crop and livestock insurance and subsidies over the next five years but cut funding for the food stamp stamp program. The programs are covered only by a one-year extension of the last farm bill that ends in September.

Rep. Jason Smith, R-Missouri, recently elected to Congress as a replacement for Jo Ann Emerson in the 8th District, voted for amendments to the bill that would have affected the food stamp program, such as requiring recipients be subject to random drug testing, cutting more money from the program than originally proposed and creating a welfare-to-work program. Smith also was among 195 representatives who voted to pass the overall bill; 234 voted against it.

Smith's frustration at the House's failure to pass the legislation Thursday was reminiscient of the former congresswoman Emerson, an avid supporter of farm bills.

"In my opinion, it's a complete shame that the House bill was such a bipartisan effort -- I mean Republicans and Democrats supported it -- but it virtually went to waste today," Smith said.

Before major debate leading to votes over amendments began in the House this week, the bill was seen largely as a bipartisan effort -- with the exception being disagreement on cuts to the food-stamp program. Proposed cuts weren't deep enough for many Republicans; they objected to the cost of the nearly $80 billion-a-year food stamp program, which has doubled in the last five years.

Democrats feared the cuts could remove as many as 2 million needy recipients from the rolls. Many Democrats instead pushed for cutting farm subsidies.

The addition of optional state work requirements by an amendment just before final passage turned away any remaining Democratic votes the bill's supporters may have had.

Smith said the bill would have cut mandatory spending and given farm families certainty for the future.

"It's results of some conservatives thinking it didn't cut enough, and some Democrats thinking it cut too much," he said.

In Missouri's 8th Congressional District, which includes 30 counties in Southeast and Southern Missouri, more families received food stamp benefits in 2008 than any of the state's other seven districts.

Nearly 45,000 families, or about 18 percent of the district's households, received SNAP benefits in 2008, according to the most recent figures available through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Forty-eight percent of those households had children under 18, and 27 percent had one or more persons 60 and over. The region also is home to the most farm acreage in the state.

Members of Congress who supported cuts to food stamps say the assistance program and the farm programs should be separated. Agricultural interests don't necessarily agree ­-- they mostly just want to see a new farm bill passed.

"Our strong feeling in the past, and now, is that it is easier to pass a farm bill when the programs are kept together," said Blake Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau. "The most important thing is to continue to provide certainty for farmers in the form of a good safety net. The House bill, even after it went through the amendments process, it would have done that. It was good for agriculture."

The future of a farm bill remains uncertain, but some congressional leaders say another extension is not out of the question, and they want to see the push for reforms to continue.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Oklahoma, said deficit reduction and other changes, such as direct payments going to farmers regardless of the amount of crops they grow, still need to be pursued.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed its version of the farm bill last week, with about $2.4 billion a year in overall cuts and a $400 million annual decrease in food stamps -- one-fifth of the House bill's food stamp cuts. If the two chambers cannot come together on a bill, farm-state lawmakers are likely to push for an extension of the 2008 farm bill that expires in September.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

eragan@semissourian.com

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