Agri-Pulse
Boozman hopeful about SNAP deal before Aug. 6 farm bill markup
By Olivia M. Bridges and Kim Chipman
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman says talks continue for a possible one- or two-year delay of new SNAP costs faced by certain states.
“We’re working on it,” Boozman told Agri-Pulse when asked about the odds of Republicans and Democrats reaching a deal over upcoming changes in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Democrats including Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Ag Committee’s ranking member, have pressed to postpone the cost-share shift by at least two years for states that will be on the hook to pay benefits for the first time because of their SNAP payment error rates, even though states with much higher error figures, like Alaska, have been granted a two-year delay.
Boozman on Thursday said the talks are focusing more on a potential one-year delay.
The Arkansas Republican said both sides are negotiating in good faith and he expects an agreement can be struck ahead of a planned Aug. 6 markup of the Senate Ag Committee’s proposed farm bill.
Disagreement over cuts and structural changes made to SNAP in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act threatens to unravel attempts to get a new farm bill through Congress.
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., a member of the ag panel, said the SNAP cost sharing is needed to fix a flawed system plagued by errors. The prospect of a two-year delay lacks broad Republicans support, she told Agri-Pulse Newsmakers.
"A two-year delay is a long delay, and I think that there's going to be resistance to that," she said in a Newsmakers interview set to run on Friday.
But Hyde-Smith stressed that Republicans have listened to the concerns of Democrats and "compromised.”
"We found common ground, and we've come a long way to get that common ground," she said without elaborating.
Separately, people familiar with the matter told Agri-Pulse the Senate Ag Committee is set to release new proposed farm bill text as soon as today that adds a provision to allow year-round, voluntary sales of higher ethanol-gasoline blends known as E15.
The measure worked on by Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., also would alter how small refinery exemptions are dealt with under federal biofuel-blending rules, though in a different way than as proposed in E15 legislation passed by the House in May, according to the people.
--With contributions from Andrew Huneke.