The news just keeps getting better and better!

Tuesday night, Senator McConnell’s amendment (details below) to increase funding for food stamps within the farm bill was accepted. This will provide approximately $493 million additional dollars to the nutrition title in the Senate bill for a total of $8.9 billion over 10 years.

After Senator McConnell offered the amendment, Senator Harkin attempted to modify the amendment to the use the same savings for a farm savings program. The Harkin amendment failed by a vote of 80 to 17 sending a strong signal of support for the McConnell amendment. Then, the original McConnell amendment was accepted without a recorded vote.

And, the Senate passed it’s version of the farm bill yesterday (58-40)!

The final nutrition title in the Senate bill is a tremendous victory for the anti-hunger community. Senator Lugar’s bill would have provided $10 billion to food stamps and TEFAP over the next 10 years. The Senate bill now provides $8.9 for nutrition programs, including top priorities such as benefit restorations for legal immigrants and individuals subject to the three-month time limit as well as significant benefit improvements and program simplification.

Congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard on these issues! We cannot express how vital your voices have been in and to this debate.

Within the next few days, we will post on our web site and send out a side-by-side comparison of the House and Senate bills, including the cost of each provision. Conferees have not yet been appointed in either the House or Senate. Nonetheless, staff negotiations are likely to begin almost immediately. Among the first decisions that Conferees must make are how to divide resources among the titles. The Senate nutrition title is now more than twice the size of the House nutrition title ($3.6 billion over ten years). Some may question whether the Senate resources for nutrition are truly necessary. It is critical that you continue to weigh-in with your members (in both the House and Senate) on the need for a strong nutrition title and the need for a significant investment.

We will alert you as soon as the conferees are named.

Next week, Congress is on recess and many members will be home. We encourage you to signal your strong support for the Senate nutrition title. Thank members of the Senate for their good work on the nutrition title. Use this opportunity to educate House members of how important the Senate improvements are and why investments are needed beyond the House nutrition title. Of course, encourage all members to weigh-in with House and Senate leadership as well as the Agriculture Committees on the importance of a strong nutrition title and the need for significant resources in the Conference bill.

If you don’t have a member on the Agriculture Committee, they still can make a big difference! It is critical that off-Committee members weigh-in on these issues.

The McConnell amendment added the following provisions to the nutrition title:

1. The proposal would allow low-income disabled individuals and their families with savings between $2,000 and $3,000 to gain eligibility for food stamps. CBO has scored this proposal at $64 million over 10 years. Currently only those households with an elderly member are allowed $3,000 is countable assets.

2. In addition, this proposal would "finish the job" of making the food stamp program more responsive to the needs of larger households by expanding the current farm bill provision on the standard deduction to reflect proposals put forward by the Bush Administration and Senator Lugar. This provision will increase the size of the overall standard deduction proposal by $429 million over the next ten years.

If you have any questions, please contact Dottie Rosenbaum or Stacy Dean at CBPP.