The Farm Bill Expired. What comes next?

Oct 01, 2018

By MBPC Staff

Following a meeting between the leaders on the Agriculture Committee during the last week of September, it became clear that Congress would not pass a final farm bill before the current bill expired on September 30, 2018. While staff will continue to work through the differences between the House and Senate bills in October, members of the House travelled back to their districts, and we don’t expect a final bill until after the election. So what happens to SNAP and other programs since the farm bill expires on September 30^th? The good news is that there will be no changes to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), as well as TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program), CSFP (Commodity Supplemental Food Program), and FDPIR (Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations); these programs will continue to be funded and operate as usual. FINI (Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive) grants, on the other hand, were funded just through fiscal year 2018 in the previous farm bill. Both the House and Senate farm bills include funding for FINI to continue, but applications for new FINI grants for the next fiscal year may be delayed until a new Farm Bill is enacted. It is our understanding that most of the larger farm programs, including crop insurance and commodity policy, will also continue to operate without any changes. There are, however, several smaller programs that will run out of funding soon after the September 30 deadline. Blog posts from the National Farmers Union and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition provide examples of programs that will run out of funding, which impact conservation, natural resource concerns, value-added agriculture, organic agriculture, beginning farmers, farmers of color, and local and regional food systems. The next steps to protect SNAP from harmful changes or cuts. Advocacy efforts will continue to push members of Congress to reject the harmful House SNAP provisions and accept the strong, bipartisan SNAP provisions in the Senate version of the farm bill. Here is a reminder of the cuts and changes to SNAP outlined in the House bill. Over the past several months, Montanans from all walks of life have sent clear messages to the Montana congressional delegation to strengthen and support SNAP in the 2018 farm bill, as outlined in the current Senate bill.

• Montana faith leaders are staunchly opposed to the House farm bill that would impose unnecessary work requirements on SNAP families in this Billings Gazette Guest opinion: Montana faith leaders oppose House Farm Bill
• Farmers and educators have expressed deep concerns about work requirements in the farm bill, including a Flathead farmer in this Flathead Beacon piece: Farm Bill Could Take Away SNAP and a Missoula nutrition educator in Farm bill should help keep kids fed
• Advocates for Montanans with disabilities expressed their deep concerns with this Guest opinion: House Farm Bill threatens to take food from disabled Montanans
• Food pantries and emergency food banks from around the state have sent a simple, straight forward message published in the Ravalli Republic: Protect SNAP
• The Billings Gazette editorial board knows that SNAP works for Montanans and there are already common sense work requirements in place - and said so in this editorial: Keep SNAP working for Montanans

We know SNAP works. In 2016, the program lifted 3.6 million people out of poverty and provided many more with temporary assistance between jobs or in crisis. When House and Senate members negotiate a final Farm Bill, they should take the approach of the Senate — working in a bipartisan manner to produce a bill that improves, rather than weakens, SNAP for the families who rely on the program. Our Montana delegation members need to continue to hear from their constituents. To learn more about SNAP, check out our report, SNAP Helps Grow a Healthy Workforce and a Healthy Economy and our recent blog, Indian Country Could be Hardest Hit by Changes to SNAP in 2018 Farm Bill.