The House Committee on Agriculture passed the discussion draft of the Farm Bill last week, and this draft is raising some serious red flags. People who care about preserving resources for the truly needy, breaking the cycle of dependency on government, and reining in government spending should wholeheartedly oppose this bill. Here’s why.
Despite its name, 80 percent of the Farm Bill deals with the food stamp program—not farming. And it’s this 80 percent that makes it a costly piece of legislation with far-reaching consequences for all Americans. As it stands, the Farm Bill would dramatically expand welfare, adding millions more Americans to the welfare rolls and spending billions more taxpayer dollars with no end in sight.
The proposed Farm Bill expands welfare dramatically
Proposed measures in the Farm Bill draft would exempt more income from eligibility and benefit calculations, making more people qualified for welfare and costing billions in taxpayer dollars over the next decade. It would expand standard earnings deductions to 22 percent, which would cost taxpayers at least $6.4 billion over the next 10 years. The cost would be higher if enrollment or inflation increase beyond projections, too.
The bill would also exempt income earned from job training programs or refugee/asylee employment programs. During President Biden’s administration, millions of refugees have entered the country—10 times the number admitted during former President Trump’s last year in office. The proposed Farm Bill is completely tone-deaf to the current border crisis. With the millions of people—and counting—added to these programs during the last several years, this alone would increase federal spending significantly.
It would add millions more people to welfare
The proposed Farm Bill includes provisions that would add individuals to the food stamps program who previously did not qualify for benefits, including convicted drug dealers and incarcerated individuals. This bill also encourages states to enroll more college students on food stamps.
Enrolling these populations is not only extremely costly but also diverts resources from the truly needy families and children who benefit from this program. It will make welfare dependency the default option for college students and those leaving prison and, with no meaningful work requirement for able-bodied adults, will only perpetuate and make worse the cycle of dependency.
While the bill would block future unilateral expansion of food stamp benefits through Thrifty Food Plan reevaluations, it does nothing to address President Biden’s unilateral, unlawful 2021 increase that raised food stamp benefits by 27 percent.
The proposed Farm Bill is outrageously expensive
Republicans, especially fiscal conservatives, cannot ignore just how costly this Farm Bill would be—it’s estimated to increase the cost of food stamps by at least another $10 billion over the next 10 years. Even more distressing is the estimated total cost of the bill itself: an estimated $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. Federal spending is already out of control, and it’s driving inflation. Increasing federal spending to expand the food stamp program without meaningful program integrity reforms and work requirements will only make a bad situation worse.
The proposed Farm Bill is NOT a good bill
The proposed Farm Bill is, in a word, a catastrophe—it doesn’t capitalize on any of the improvements to the food stamps program outlined in the Limit, Save, Grow Act, most importantly, extending work requirements to more able-bodied adults. It guarantees a hefty price tag for the food stamp program for the foreseeable future.
Legislators who want to limit government spending and preserve welfare resources cannot overlook the major issues with this proposed draft. The House should not pass this bill, and the Senate shouldn’t let this draft see the light of day in their chamber, either.