Senate Democrats Gear Up for Farm Bill Reauthorization

By Bill Shore | July 11, 2007

This morning the leaders of many of the national anti-hunger organizations met at the Capitol with key Democratic Senators from the Senate Democratic Steering Committee that is trying to schedule action on the Farm Bill Reauthorization that includes so many federal food and nutrition programs.

Attending were Majority Leader Harry Reid, assistant majority leader Dick Durbin, Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, and Senators Blanche Lincoln, Sherrod Brown, Debbie Stabenow, Bernard Sanders, Bob Casey, and Montana's John Testor, the only full-time organic farmer in the Senate.

Majority Leader Reid began by saying, "The Farm Bill is in distress, like many other things we work on up here, because of Iraq where we are spending $12 billion a month."

Jim Weil from FRAC discussed desired changes to food stamp regulations, Vicki Escarra from America's Second Harvest said they were experiencing an 8% increase in the number of people seeking to be served by food banks, and physician Deborah Frank warned that "the choices the Senate makes will be written on the bodies and brains of the young children I see as a pediatrician. Food stamps are good medicine but they don't reach one in five children who need them, which would be considered a public health crisis if we were taking about an immunization."

Senator Harkin said that he hoped to have the Farm Bill finished in the Agriculture Committee by the end of the week and that it would come to the floor in September. He explained that the asset level of $2000, which food stamp applicants must fall below to qualify, was set in 1982 and never changed and that it should be $5900 today and indexed in the future to the cost-of-living, He hoped to at least double it to $4000 with the current legislation. "The package of nutritional measures we need will cost about $3 billion a year over five years and it is going to be hard to find that money, but we must."

Senator Sanders concluded the session by saying that "this is not an agricultural issue. It is a deeply moral issue. The unequal distribution of wealth in this country makes me angry. Poor Tom Harkin is looking for $12-15 billion and next week we'll be voting on a Defense Department bill that includes $500 billion! What we need to be fighting for is a change of national priorities."