SNAP Battle Derails Senate Farm Bill

Sen. John Boozman, Chair, U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee: “The offer before you is the best, and it's the final offer. Should this legislation be defeated today, current law will remain in effect in states with poorly administered SNAP programs”

Late this week, the Senate Agriculture Committee spent several hours on marking up the Agriculture Act of 2026. 

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Ranking Member, U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee: “But this big bill has been out there for six days. That's how long it's been in public. And while I appreciate Senator Boozeman's most recent conceptual draft and that it incorporates feedback to the original draft after we met with him in June, we got this less than a week ago.”

The committee went through the 12 titles of the measure, considering amendments along the way. Votes were all along party lines. 

Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey: “But I just want to do some simple math with my friends here, because this is effing ridiculous.”

The Bill has similarities to the House’s Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 which passed the full body in April. The Senate version includes the standard farm safety net including provisions for livestock disaster payments, an addition of $500 million to the Market Facilitation Program, and unlike the House version, the establishment of year round E-15.

The Nutrition title, the funding of which comprises more than 70% of the dollars allocated for the Farm Bill, took over the majority of the markup session. 

According to Democrat members of the committee, previous legislation has already cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for 4.5 million people, including 1.5 million children.  

Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia: “This began with the Republicans cutting $187 billion out of SNAP.”

Unlike the House version of the measure, the Senate’s Farm Bill delays when states will take over a portion of SNAP payments and increases the penalty for states that make errors in the distribution of benefits. 

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas  the only people from the Working Family tax cuts bill that lost their Snap benefits, where folks that weren't willing to work 20 hours a week, go to school, volunteer…Isn't it a good thing to help get people to lift them up, to get a job so they don't have to be on government assistance?

After working for several hours, a final vote along party lines ended any chance of the bill coming out of committee before the August recess begins. 

Sen. John Boozman, Chair, U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee: “And so at the end of the day, I think our states lose. I know our farmers are going to lose and they don't have anything to do with this.” 

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell was not present and Senator Tommy Tubberville left the room before the vote. 

Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican, said the bill needs to be crafted in a bipartisan manner to have any chance of reaching the 60 vote threshold needed to overcome the filibuster and pass the full Senate. 

Several agricultural lobbying groups expressed disappointment at the failure of the bill to come out of committee and want to see work resume as quickly as possible. 

For Market to Market, I’m David Miller.