The U.S. House passed the farm bill Thursday without including food stamp funding. Now, Indiana’s U.S. Senators are split on whether the assistance program should remain out of the bill.
House Republicans narrowly pushed through the farm bill after stripping out food stamp funding, which has been tied to farm bills for decades.
Republican Senator Dan Coats – who voted for the farm bill when it passed the Senate last month – says he approves of the decision by House Republicans to leave food stamps separate.
“I think it’s created problems to the point where we ought to identify both of these as essential programs that have to be addressed,” Coats said. “I don’t believe they need to be tied together.”
Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly says food stamps have long been a part of the farm bill as a way to gather support from both rural and urban representatives. And he says he doesn’t see a way to get the farm bill passed without food stamps.
“In the House’s version, we have no plan to be able to provide a single lunch to a needy child and I don’t see how that passes,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly says his biggest concern is the fact that House Republicans don’t seem to have any plan for food stamp funding, even in separate legislation.
