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L The Senate passed Tuesday a $ 867 billion measure authorizing agricultural policies and expenditures, as well as the national food stamp program.
Legislators in the Senate overwhelmingly approved the 2018 Farm Bill, voting 87 to 13, returning the measure to the House for final approval, where it should be easily passed.
The five-year leave measure is a bipartisan compromise between the House and the Senate.
The bill excludes significant reforms from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, included in the House version.
The reforms would have expanded labor requirements for food voucher recipients and allocated $ 1 billion to vocational training programs.
The Democrats opposed the reforms and argued that the demands of work would force the needy to stop buying good food and wasting money on vocational training programs. duplicating.
The measure legalizes industrial hemp production, a provision advocated by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Of which the state is a producer.
The bill reauthorizes federal crop insurance programs and provides an additional $ 500 million to help farmers find new foreign markets for the export of goods. It also provides $ 300 million for research and the fight against animal diseases.
"As promised, this agriculture bill provides the certainty and predictability essential to all producers of all crops in all regions of the country," said Pat Roberts, Chair of the Agriculture Committee. Senate Agriculture, Kansas.
The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said that this measure makes it more difficult to dodge current work obligations fulfilled by the federal government, which make already part of the food stamp program.
"On the SNAP side, we are making significant improvements in program integrity," said Conaway.
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