WASHINGTON — The long-overdue farm bill stalled in committee on Thursday after lawmakers failed to advance the legislation in a party-line vote.
Senate Agriculture Democrats rejected the legislation over their failed push to include a two-year delay of a new requirement that states pay a share of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
The committee can reconsider the bill when the Senate returns from its August recess.
During the markup, the bill failed 10-11 after U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted by proxy in favor of the bill, but proxy votes don’t count towards the final majority vote.
Tuberville was present for other parts of the meeting but was not inside the room during the final vote. His office did not respond to a request for a comment on his absence. McConnell has been absent from the Capitol for nearly two months while he recovers from a fall.
“We have a responsibility to stand with America’s farmers, ranchers and rural communities,” U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., the agriculture chair, said. “Everyone recognizes the serious challenges they continue to face, and blocking the farm bill only adds to the uncertainty and hardship.”
Boozman had added a one-year delay of the SNAP cost-share and authorized year-round E15 sales in the Senate version of the farm bill to incentivize Democrats to support the usually bipartisan legislation this year.
But Democrats argued it wasn’t enough time for states to prepare for the steep costs they could have to pay for food assistance under the new requirements in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The costs will be based on a state’s payment error rate, which can result from unreported household changes, worker mistakes or missing paperwork. If a state’s error rate is equal to or greater than 6%, it will have to pay a portion of the program’s benefits. Under a one-year delay, cost-share obligations would begin Oct. 1, 2028.
“We are spiraling into a deficit and a debt and where our big idea to solve that problem is to go after the most struggling Americans, that is hypocrisy,” U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said during the hearing.
To offset that one-year delay in the farm bill, Senate Republicans increased the maximum share states would have to pay for benefits from 15% to 20% starting in fiscal year 2031.
“It’s in essence increasing the risk that some states could drop out of the program entirely down the road,” Katie Bergh with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank, told Alabama Daily News. “It’s taking a step to protect families in the immediate term, but it’s doing so at the expense of greater risk that even more people lose food assistance in the future.”
In Alabama, about 82,000 people have lost SNAP benefits over the past year after the Republicans’ massive tax and spending law implemented cuts to the food aid program.
Based on the state’s most recent payment error rate of 9.52%, Alabama would be on the hook for about $174 million beginning Oct. 1, 2027, unless a delay is implemented.
Alabama Department of Human Resources officials have warned that these cost-share obligations could lead to drastic cuts to the program that provides food assistance to about 648,000 Alabamians. The average monthly benefit is about $194 per person and $392 per household.
Should he win the governor’s mansion in November, Tuberville would be in charge when these SNAP changes take place. Yet, he told ADN he supports the one-year delay while acknowledging it won’t be a quick fix.
“One year’s fine,” he said. “(It’ll) give me a chance to get my feet on the ground if I become governor to be able to address the error rate, because this is going to take a while to get it addressed.”
The nutrition portion is just one piece of the farm bill. Congress has not passed a new farm bill since 2018, opting instead to extend it.
The Senate bill extends key agricultural programs, provides financial assistance to farmers and bolsters conservation programs.
For Alabama, Tuberville said the legislation includes his bill to include pecans and other tree nuts in the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program.
It also extends the Feral Swine Eradication and Control Program. Under the bill, the Talladega National Forest would be expanded by about 50,000 acres, according to Tuberville.
“The Talladega National Forest Act would give the U.S. Forest Service the authority to purchase forest land from willing sellers, allowing for safer off-road trails,” Tuberville said during a press call. “Not only would this move encourage more folks to spend time in Alabama’s great outdoors, it would bring economic growth and tourism to the region.”
The current farm bill extension is set to run out at the end of September.
The House has passed its own farm bill, but it did not include any delay to SNAP cost-share obligations. Both chambers will have to pass the same version before the agricultural legislation becomes law.