▶ 0:19:45Chair Boozman: Today's business meeting to consider an original bill, the agricultural act of 2026. I like to call it farm bill 2.0. I would like to recognize my friend and colleague, senator mitch mcconnell. There continues recovery. I spoke with senator mcconnell yesterday.
▶ 0:20:13Chair Boozman: I know how much he would have wanted to be here to advocate for kentucky farmers and rural communities. Through his career, senator mcconnell has been a steadfast champion of the bluegrass state's agriculture producers, advancing policies that expand opportunity, strength and, and enhance competitiveness of american agriculture.
▶ 0:20:38Chair Boozman: He has served on this committee's entire tenure in the senate and this is the eighth farm bill he has heaped -- help shape. Few members bring the depth of experience institutional knowledge that he does or better understand how important the legislation is to american farmers and rural communities. His leadership has helped deliver meaningful solutions for men and women who work every day to feed, fuel, and close our nation.
▶ 0:21:06Chair Boozman: I wish him a full and speedy recovery and we look forward to welcoming him back to the committee soon. During this journey of drafting a new farm bill, while I was in north dakota with senator hoeven , a good friend of all of ours, a woman told me we need to put more farm on the farm bill. That statement stuck with me and served as a mantra during this process.
▶ 0:21:33Chair Boozman: Last year we answered the call through the working families tax cut act. Those improvements delivered meaningful support to producers by strengthening commodity programs, expanding access to affordable crop insurance, improving disaster assistance, investing in animal health programs, and making farm programs more responsive to the risks that farmers face every day.
▶ 0:22:02Chair Boozman: The bill before you today is an attempt to finalize work for the farmers, ranchers, and producers in rural communities that are the backbone of our nation and give them the farm bill they deserve.
▶ 0:22:17Chair Boozman: Beyond that, this legislation, once we adopt the amendment, represents the best and final offer I can make to address the concerns of the minority that they have raised on the supplemental nutrition assistance program. I want to be clear, a two year delay does not have the support of the majority of congress or the white house. The offer before you is the best and final offer.
▶ 0:22:46Chair Boozman: Should this legislation be defeated today, current law will remain in effect and states that poorly administer snap programs will begin to pay for a portion of the benefit next year. We work hard to provide a one-year extension. In return, we have gotten two years or nothing. By the way, we do not even discuss the farm bill until you give us two years.
▶ 0:23:12Chair Boozman: How is that taking care of hard-working families trying to make a living? The last year, arkansas has had more farm bankruptcies that over the last 4.5 years combined. Thanks to the efforts of senator fischer, thune, o, and many of you around the table, people like senator grassley -- everybody has worked so hard to get an opportunity to have it.
▶ 0:23:46Chair Boozman: Today, because of the hard work of senators fischer, thune, o -- capito -- I'm not going to point everyone out but I know how hard you worked. We have a chance today to pass for the first time out of committee the legislation to authorize it year-round.
▶ 0:24:15Chair Boozman: The bill -- I'm proud of the bill we put together. This is the best opportunity to do good things for farmers, rural communities, and the future of agriculture. This bill incorporates more than 100 bipartisan bills and priorities for my colleagues with feedback from farmers, ranchers, and rural community leaders.
▶ 0:24:37Chair Boozman: It took great effort to craft a bipartisan product that reflects the needs and ideas from every region of the country. From arkansas, producers are facing difficult circumstances like everyone is through the country. I have heard firsthand from farm families whose roots in agriculture stretch back for generations. Today, many are being forced to operate at a loss or close operations were good.
▶ 0:25:08Chair Boozman: I know every member of this committee has heard similar stories from farmers back home. These are families who rise before dawn every day to sustain our nation. They are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for the support they need to keep farming. They are looking for us to act, looking to us for hope.
▶ 0:25:31Chair Boozman: This farm bill provides that hope and gives producers tools and confidence they need to keep farming, keep investing, and keep it as such that they feed america. This legislation is about more than agriculture.
▶ 0:25:48Chair Boozman: It is about ensuring family farms remain viable role communities remain strong and future generations have the opportunity to carry forward america's proud agricultural tradition. Today we will see who talks about supporting farmers and who is voting to help farmers. I now recognize the ranking member for comments.
▶ 0:26:14Sen. Klobuchar: I appreciate our long-standing relationship and I'm hopeful that while we do not have complete agreement today we are making the bill better with some bipartisan amendments that will be voted on initially today and that those will be helpful. As you know, there is still work to do on s.n.a.p., as you referenced.
▶ 0:26:44Sen. Klobuchar: In the end, given the effect of the tariffs on families across the united states, given the effect of the war in iran and the effect that has had on the price of gas and diesel, it is impossible for us to believe that we cannot when $70 billion has been requested for the war in iran and another $70 billion was added to I.c.e., that we cannot find a way to do this
▶ 0:27:16Sen. Klobuchar: Extra year to help states across the country and this is not just blue states at all. It is also a bunch of red states. I saw this coming with this problem when I wrote an op-ed in july in the washington post and that is that 398 days ago hr one point into effect, carrying with it $187 billion cut to s.n.a.p.,
▶ 0:27:47Sen. Klobuchar: The largest cut in history to the foremost antihunger program. It coincided with the tariff that has raised the prices of groceries as well as other household goods. Since the bill was enacted, at least 4.5 million people, including 1.5 million children, are without s.n.a.p.. The legislation also created this mandate that pushed tens of billions of dollars in costs on the states.
▶ 0:28:18Sen. Klobuchar: As I noted in the op-ed in july, despite claiming to prioritize the elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse, goals are support, hr one, because of last minute legislation manipulation to get a vote of the senator from alaska, rewarded high air raid to states with an unfair formula that left mid error rate states as the losers.
▶ 0:28:46Sen. Klobuchar: And while we are asking for here is equal footing for states like pennsylvania so they are on the same footing as states like alaska or states like georgia.
▶ 0:29:03Sen. Klobuchar: Now the states with the high air rates are being rewarded still and I do appreciate the acknowledgment of this problem for the one-year change but that means the high error rate states are still being rewarded at the expense of all states with mid rates, including my state where this will go directly to the counties and county taxpayers.
▶ 0:29:30Sen. Klobuchar: In the debt of the night a year ago, republicans decided to give states with the highest s.n.a.p. Error rate special treatment to peer was not a decision made based on sound policy. I have never seen anything like this in my years in congress were high error rate or the biggest problems were rewarded.
▶ 0:29:49Sen. Klobuchar: They made this to get the vote of the senator from alaska and under the original proposal alaska met with an error rate twice that of minnesota, would get off scott free for two years will minnesota and any mid air of would have to find hundreds of millions of dollars in their state budget. We have seen this policy play out this year.
▶ 0:30:19Sen. Klobuchar: Take the state of florida, for example. Florida lowered their error rate and their reward good at being saddled with in a hundred million dollars penalty nearly doubling the state budget deficit. Another state actually increased their error rate and will not be exempt from paying 650 million dollars. Democrats have made clear that every state should get equal treatment in reducing their air rates.
▶ 0:30:50Sen. Klobuchar: We share the goal. States and counties need the time but it is not just about the time. It is about equal footing. And while I appreciate that one year has been included in this bill, exactly, it is a band-aid, because one year from now again you will have the same thing play out with the high error rate states in their pristine position not having to have any cost shift while the rest of us suffer.
▶ 0:31:21Sen. Klobuchar: The one-year delay under discussion would allow states like alaska to keep their two year delay while states like minnesota, colorado, and oklahoma would be in a worse position if they do not bring down their fy 2028 error rates to 6%, which begins next fall.
▶ 0:31:43Sen. Klobuchar: Why is alaska, with an air rate of 20 3%, still eligible for the two year delay and minnesota at 12% is not? Be on nutrition, I appreciate this bill includes many provisions with bipartisan support. The bill creases farm loan limits, a provision that senator hoeven and I have worked on together. A great entry moment.
▶ 0:32:16Sen. Klobuchar: It increases resources for trade promotion and as a trauma noted includes year-round e 15, something I have been leading on on our side with various republican senators and with senator durbin and senator smith and senator slotkin and others for years.
▶ 0:32:36Sen. Klobuchar: I cannot tell you how important this is and whether it is in this bill as we continue to negotiate it over the summer for the remaining month or whether it is on a floor vote on e 15, something I discussed last night was senator schumer and have in the past with senator thune, we need to get e 15 done at the house did do a standalone vote on this and we can do the same
▶ 0:33:07Sen. Klobuchar: But the preferable way to do this is to reach an agreement on s.n.a.p. Since we have some other disagreements but for the most part a lot the work has been done on this bill. This bill includes other bipartisan provisions I support like strengthening the farm and ranch stress assistance network to help farmers struggling with stress in these tough times as well as efforts to expand pathways to careers in agriculture through community colleges.
▶ 0:33:37Sen. Klobuchar: The bill also includes several items I have championed with leader thune like the new fertilizer price reporting system and parts of our proposal to improve and add the conservae program. I want us to get to a bipartisan agreement. I think people know that is how I have operated in this place and what I want to get done.
▶ 0:33:59Sen. Klobuchar: That includes working together to make improvements to provisions in this bill, including conservation, that will benefit our farmers. First and foremost, that includes addressing this ridiculous situation where still in year two the high error rate states get off scott free and the mid error rate states are left to have all this money put on tax payers or county
▶ 0:34:31Sen. Klobuchar: Taxpayers. Congress should be doing more to tackle the challenges facing our farmers and rural towns. We should be providing resources for states. We should be working on supply chains and we should be doing things that are in committee jurisdiction's economic development but also outside of it.
▶ 0:34:52Sen. Klobuchar: Like what has been happening with rural hospitals because of these medicaid cuts, because what has been happening because of the decision not to extend the tax credit to bring down the insurance premiums under the individual marketplace plans, which are inordinately used in rural. And all over in every state but particularly in rural america.
▶ 0:35:17Sen. Klobuchar: 8 million people through the medicaid cuts and through the decisions on the affordable care act tax credit premiums productions have lost health insurance and it has inordinately affected rural america. Hr one has been in effect for 398 days. Again, I believe we can still reach agreement on this bill. But this big bill has been out there for six days.
▶ 0:35:44Sen. Klobuchar: That is how long it has been in public and while I appreciate senator boozman's most recent conceptual draft and that it incorporates feedback to the original draft after we met with him in june but we got this less than a week ago.
▶ 0:36:01Sen. Klobuchar: There still needs to be work and we have narrowed our areas of negotiation like you would do in any negotiation to some key provisions and the most important thing for us as we said in our letter in june, everyone of us on this committee come up from different ideological stances and different states, have made it clear we are not going to allow the situation to continue to exist for a your extra where states are treated differently
▶ 0:36:32Sen. Klobuchar: And are not on equal footing. I appreciate the effort to bring us closer to an agreement and I hope when all is said and done today we do not leave divided. Instead, we live united in our plan to find a compromise that will bring the votes to get this done. Thank you.
▶ 0:36:50Chair Boozman: Thank you very much. Before proceeding to legislation , letters to the committee regarding the legislation we are considering today will be included in the record. Without objection, members will be permitted to submit statements regarding the legislation for the record. Finally, without objection, we will consider commitments by type.
▶ 0:37:19Chair Boozman: The committee will not proceed to consider the agriculture act of 2016. I'm pleased that over the last week we have been able to incorporate a number of additional member priorities in the form of an unlocked package that includes the following amendments. Number one, technical amendments. Plus fertilizer transparency act clarification. Number two, nutrition.
▶ 0:37:50Chair Boozman: Errors made -- error rates -- savings reinvested. Number one, rotisserie chicken in s.n.a.p.. Food for peace. Prairie dogs. Hyde-smith number one, seafood. Hyde-smith number four, rops.
▶ 0:38:22Chair Boozman: Hoeven, state conservation. Just as number two, the flood act. Number three, the housing study. Number one, modified fertilizer. Number two, cftc whistleblower. Conservation, countries of concern.
▶ 0:38:45Chair Boozman: Hooverville -- turberville, cinderblock grants. Mcconnell one, wide oak initiative. Lujan, farmer to farmer. Fishermen -- fetterman, chip ebt cards. Shift 11 to shift two, second degree healthy lungs.
▶ 0:39:13Chair Boozman: Shift 20, specialty crop definition. Shift 19, national clean plant network. Warnock number 10, warnock number one, the scholarship program. Number eight, the land update. Slotkin number two, cybersecurity risk assessment. Warnock number 11, property.
▶ 0:39:44Chair Boozman: Warnock number two. Smith 14, community facilities lending. Booker number 10, office of small farms. Slotkin number five, funding. Lujan eight, modified lpa. Without objection, I move that these amendments be adopted.
▶ 0:40:12Sen. Klobuchar: Thank you for your work and our staff and your staff work on this and there are a lot of commitments included in this block that I support. Increased funding to food banks for working to meet record demand. Funding local food purchases from small and midsize farms.
▶ 0:40:32Sen. Klobuchar: Investments in the foundation for food and agriculture research, assisting small dairy farmers with free basic coverage under the dairy margin coverage program, making sure small farmers have a seat at the table, allowing for hot rotisserie be purchased with s.n.a.p. Dollars is popular and affordable option and I'm glad this amendment was included.
▶ 0:40:54Sen. Klobuchar: There is also an amendment from senator thune allowing for limited expansion of base acres, something I know we care about. Finally, I share a desire for the usda to succeed in operating food for peace with others and his language is a strong start giving the usda authority it needs and congress information and oversight rules it requires.
▶ 0:41:19Sen. Klobuchar: It is not quite there yet and while I support this overall package I ask that chairman boozman and senator moran commit to continuing to work with senator shaheen at her request and me on a bill that we can all agree on that will set up the food for peace program to succeed and save lives around the world. As we proceed on that, I'm supporting this amendment even though it is by voice vote. Thank you.
▶ 0:41:47Chair Boozman: Thank you very much. I think you summed up the food for peace issue well. We are committed to working out some kinks but I think we are the process of getting there. Are we going to do this by voice? All those in favor, say I. Those opposed? And it is carried. Senator moran?
▶ 0:42:18Sen. Moran: In response to senator klobuchar and others let me first, before I express what she wants to hear about which I will, I want to thank you and your staff for working with me on this amendment to transfer food for peace from usaid from the state department to the department of agriculture.
▶ 0:42:38Sen. Moran: This language is a product of months of work with members of stabs on both sides of the aisle , all committed to preserving this historic and valuable program. I also want to thank the department of agriculture for their extensive technical assistance throughout this process. Their expertise helped shape the language today.
▶ 0:43:02Sen. Moran: Food for peace is on a temporary basis, in a sense on loan from the state department to the department of agriculture by agreement that secretary rubio and secretary of agriculture both support. And this program is important to all of us in this room and in the senate.
▶ 0:43:26Sen. Moran: His creation came years ago at a farm bureau meeting in kansas where a farmer said look at all this grain we have sitting here. They are hungry people around the world. And it was -- and worked its way up the process and became legislation signed by president eisenhower now a long time ago. It is well-regarded in our state and I assume in yours.
▶ 0:43:56Sen. Moran: It demonstrates the generosity of americans. It is the best of america agriculture and why I tell farmers they have a noble profession. Feeding a hungry world. In one of my numerous midlife crises I decided I was going to use my time in united state senate and united states house by be involved in hunger, both domestic and global and I want to make sure this program fulfills the needs and benefits farmers and ranchers but
▶ 0:44:27Sen. Moran: Fulfills the needs of hungry people and I want to make sure that my moral commitment to see that occur continues to occur. It generates -- demonstrates the generosity of american agriculture and our nation.
▶ 0:44:46Sen. Moran: Wheat grown in kansas, rice grown in arkansas, delivered yesterday under the current program, is examples but it is commodities in everyone's states. Not just those. It has been millions of people while creating markets for our producers.
▶ 0:45:07Sen. Moran: The success of the program depends upon the american farmer and it seems to me no one knows the american farmer better than usda as far as a federal government agency. Over the past year under an interagency agreement, the department of state has demonstrated that it has the expertise and capacity and capability to deliver commodities to countries around the globe.
▶ 0:45:28Sen. Moran: The language provides what usda currently does not have come a strategy to ensure the program continues to operate effectively and efficiently for years to come. The farm bill represents our opportunity to provide that stability, leaving this program as a temporary arrangement will create uncertainty and millions who rely upon american food assistance -- congress has an opportunity to provide a permanent home for this program and I believe it is our
▶ 0:45:59Sen. Moran: Responsibility to act on it. I think my fellow congressmen from kansas, senator hoeven, and others here. Senator welch senator booker -- my had extensive conversations with my colleague in appropriations and the ranking member of the foreign relations committee, senator shaheen.
▶ 0:46:24Sen. Moran: We had a recent conversation, as recent as yesterday, and I made to her a commitment will continue to work on a couple of things that are broader issues here that we have some dis-agreement on but nothing should stand in the way of the opportunity for us to add this legislation to the farm bill, particularly a farm bill I hope becomes law soon so thanks to -- I should not fail to mention senator risch as well from the
▶ 0:46:55Sen. Moran: Foreign affairs committee. So I appreciate the working relationship I have with all of you and food for peace represents the best of american agriculture and the best in american leadership around the world. Many of you have seen people line up to get the benefit of our bounty at a time in which the agriculture producers are struggling at a time in which there is hunger, extensive hunger around the world.
▶ 0:47:22Sen. Moran: I encourage you to take pride in what we are doing here today to advance the cause and continuation of food for peace. Transferring this program to usda will strengthen those who need food and those who provide food. Thank you. I yield back.
▶ 0:47:44Chair Boozman: We will not begin considering amendments by title. Who seeks recognition? >> Mr. chairman. I asked to be recognized for amendment lujan five to have it considered.
▶ 0:48:08Chair Boozman: I want to start by thanking senator slotkin and all the offices that have conversations about the importance of specialty crops. I reminded that everyone of us, all of our states, we have specialty crops, and we all of the specialty crops that we raise and we often try to share them with one another. Today I brought a few pecans so I hope to continue to share them with others.
▶ 0:48:36Chair Boozman: This amendment is important because my home state of new mexico produces many specialty crops that many of us love and some of us eat on a daily basis, from the world chile to the onions that dress up our plate a little bit to pistachios that I share with a lot of you here.
▶ 0:49:01Chair Boozman: I want to acknowledge the work you and the staff did to include language that will create a framework to provide specialty crop producers across the country support. The reason for this commitment is the language currently in the bill stops at that.
▶ 0:49:18Chair Boozman: It create a framework but there is no requirement for that framework to be utilized down the road and no funding here in last time that president trump move funding for producers across the country, about $1 million was set aside for specialty crop producers but most of that went to one specialty crop and the rest of her specialty crop producers did not get that support and any of you that have talked to them or visit them know they are having
▶ 0:49:48Chair Boozman: A hard time and so this idea here would help us in places like mississippi, west virginia with apples, alabama with those delicious strawberries, california with grapes and of course the famous georgia peaches.
▶ 0:50:06Chair Boozman: Every state in this country has a specialty crop footprint so from the rising costs of oil and gas to diesel that is pushing so many folks right now, this mmn provides $5 billion in my assistance requiring the usda through the framework created by the farm bill to help farmers and ranchers across the country. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and with that I move that lujan number five be voted on.
▶ 0:50:34Sen. Klobuchar: Briefly, I do not like calling specialty crops specialty crops. I think they should be called food we eat but these crops have been hit especially hard by the trade wars and tariffs in terms of impact and lost market shares and the impact on high input costs and while these farmers receive some assistance through the assistance for specialty crop farmers program, the structure of the program should
▶ 0:51:04Sen. Klobuchar: Be streamlined to make it easier for farmers to access and I support this amendment and appreciate senator lujan and others' work on this. I urge my colleagues to vote yes.
▶ 0:51:23Sen. Schiff: I want to thank you and your staff. It has been a pleasure working with you and I appreciate this committee. I am new to the agriculture committee but I spent a lot of the last two years traveling the state meeting with farmers and dive extraordinary appreciation and respect for the hard work they do, many of them multigenerational families and I appreciate the inclusion of a number of provisions for specialty crop farmers and california farmers more
▶ 0:51:54Sen. Schiff: Generally. I share my colleagues' concern over the deep cuts to food for families in the s.n.a.p. Program . California is particularly hit hard by these cuts and delaying the imposition of the cuts were not -- give california a chance to produce a error rate wall states with higher error rates get a break is not something I support.
▶ 0:52:24Sen. Schiff: It will shift millions of dollars away from california and we are already a donor state. We already provide more funding to the federal government and we get back but I hope we will continue working on this. I just really want a farm bill. I think we all do. Hopefully we can get there by addressing this deficit created in the big, beautiful bill that is leaving millions, including children, without food.
▶ 0:52:49Sen. Schiff: In terms of the specialty crop amendment, I joined my colleague in offering california as the number one act producing state -- ag producing state in the union pier in our farmers have been asking for $5 billion in funding. The $1.6 billion is not enough to help these farmers get through these difficult times.
▶ 0:53:13Sen. Schiff: I will talk more later about disaster assistance but our farmers in california have simply gotten very little from the federal government. Most of the agriculture money goes to the midwest and south and most of it goes to big farms . We have a lot small farms and some big ones in california, too, but they need more assistance than was provided in this bill. I support my colleague's amendment.
▶ 0:53:40Chair Boozman: Does anybody else seek recognition? Hearing none, the yeas and nays are ordered. >> senator smith. Senator durbin. Senator booker. Senator lujan. Senator warnock. Senator welch. Senator fetterman.
▶ 0:54:14Chair Boozman: Senator schiff. >> aye. >>>> senator slotkin. Senator ernst. Senator hyde-smith. Senator marshall.
▶ 0:54:45Chair Boozman: . Senator tuberville. Senator grassley. Senator. Senator fischer. Senator moran. Chairman boozman.
▶ 0:54:55Chair Boozman: No. >> the. Ayes are 11 and the nose or 12. -- nos are 12.
▶ 0:55:14Chair Boozman: The amendment fails. Is anyone else recognize? >> chairman? I would like to be recognized. To call up my amendment, what's number 17, and have you considered for a vote. Thank you. First, I want to say something on behalf of all of us, I think you to our staff and your staff and your staff and all our staffs.
▶ 0:55:43Chair Boozman: I was home last night having dessert and emails were coming in and problems are getting solved. I have a nightcap and email's are coming in and problems are getting solved. I do not know how our staff did it but I give myself a lot of credit so thank you to the staff for working so hard. >> what exactly was the nightcap?
▶ 0:56:05Sen. Welch: Bourbon. It was from tennessee. But the serious question that we are grappling with, and we do not have all the tools we need to do it, is the reality that american agriculture is in crisis. Our farmers are creating an immense amount of wealth but not getting any of it.
▶ 0:56:32Sen. Welch: And when I saw the graph from the secretary of agriculture that 11 major commodity crops is costing more to plant and harvest that it is the revenue that our farmers get, that is not a sustainable situation. And that is the existential challenge I think we have in this committee, to restore the vitality of american agriculture.
▶ 0:56:57Sen. Welch: One of the things of concern to me, some of the commodity programs, the support goes to people who do not drive tractors. Senator grassley has been a leader on this and what I learned that 92,000 people in urban areas received about 2.6 billion dollars, that is of concern to me because I would like the support we provide agriculture to go to people on tractors. Not in cities.
▶ 0:57:28Sen. Welch: But my amendment is narrow and that it is calling for an audit of where the agricultural risk program coverage and the price lost coverage error rates reached 6% but my amendment would mandate an audit on any farming operation if there is more than one far manager for more than three people eligible to receive subsidy payments for
▶ 0:57:58Sen. Welch: That farm. So basically this question of an audit and error rates is something that is included when it comes to the s.n.a.p. Program but the same principle that we are applying to the s.n.a.p. Program should not that be applied to these payment programs that are going to the managers?
▶ 0:58:23Sen. Welch: So that in some cases it is a so-called manager and in other cases it is a legitimate farm operation. So that is the thrust of my amendment and I would urge a yes vote.
▶ 0:58:35Chair Boozman: Senator grassley.
▶ 0:58:38Sen. Grassley: Mr. president -- Mr. chairman, this is the seventh farm bill I have been involved in since 19 92 that I have been on this committee and this is the first one I can recall that we are not doing on a bipartisan basis.
▶ 0:58:59Sen. Grassley: I have been talking with senator welch for months about several pieces of legislation along the lines of making sure just legitimate farmers get it and I'm sorry to say that it has turned out to be a partisan markup.
▶ 0:59:19Sen. Grassley: I cannot vote for an amendment that I agree with you on and I am sorry to say that because I think you and I believe people that are actively engaged ought to be the only ones receiving farm payments and we know that when we give 70% of the farm payments to 10% of the biggest farmers in the country we are going beyond what the safety net
▶ 0:59:51Sen. Grassley: For farmers is in the last 90 years to protect people that cannot protect themselves just like a small business. We have main street to help a small business and we do not try to help john deere very much or big corporations. It is the same way when we have big farmers.
▶ 1:00:11Sen. Grassley: We should not subsidize them to get bigger so we are subsidizing them to get bigger so they drive up the price of farmland or they outbid young farmers that have to pay cash rent. That is what is wrong. But there are so many areas that I was working with fetterman or shift -- schiff.
▶ 1:00:40Sen. Grassley: But there are three or four pieces of legislation here where we really would have improved this bill for the family farmers if we had a bipartisan approach and I'm just sorry that I cannot vote for an amendment that you and I agree on but maybe somewhere along the line we will be able to do it.
▶ 1:01:01Sen. Grassley: I was going to do the same thing on the first reconciliation bill and I was talked out of it by the chairman of this committee and senator hyde-smith. I shall not have been talked out of it. I should have pushed it at that time but I was told where I could get stuff down the road. I have not see that help.
▶ 1:01:20Sen. Grassley: I'm irritated about that but we cannot have a partisan bill on the floor the united state senate or we do not get anything done for family farmers and there is so much we could have done along the lines what you and I have been trying to do because we should be helping those farmers that cannot help themselves and when you are farming 50,000 acres of farmland we should not subsidize you to get bigger.
▶ 1:01:49Sen. Grassley: We should not subsidize your squeezing out other farmers. We have to be helping young people get into agriculture. The average age of farmers in america is 58 years. We have to encourage young people to get in. You are meant meant would do it.
▶ 1:02:08Sen. Grassley: If you can go on your side of the aisle, get more cooperation for us to get a bill out on a bipartisan way I am surely going to help you but I cannot help you move a bill where we do not get any help from the other side of the aisle.
▶ 1:02:29Sen. Klobuchar: Senator boozman, I want to thank senator welch for his work and I have worked with senator grassley on these issues and he has long cared very much about farm program integrity and this amendment is a targeted provision and I urge my colleagues to vote yes.
▶ 1:02:50Chair Boozman: Anybody else? Senator grassley, I am committed to helping you with this regardless of whatever it is. I believe is you do that the rules need to be followed. I do not agree that this needs to be changed. I would ask senator welch, if this is so important, why is it that dairy programs do not have any active aid requirements?
▶ 1:03:18Chair Boozman: You don't have any actively engaged requirements. So you are asking us to do this with this particular sector but dairy itself has no actively engaged requirements. It has no payment.
▶ 1:03:35Sen. Welch: The dairy farmers are on the farm. It is unbelievable, when it happened to dairy farmers. They are not only working on the farm, they are working off the farm. The only way dairy farmers can make it is milking the cows and then one of the partners is out there working in the city for a wage job because they cannot make it.
▶ 1:04:00Sen. Welch: So bottom line here is that on the accountability question, that should be a principal we apply across the board, whether it is the semi-program or a support program.
▶ 1:04:17Sen. Welch: The intention of congress is that the actual farmer get the money or the actual person in need of nutrition get the nutrition aid so when it comes to this principle of accountability I am all in on any program, and it should apply to the pentagon as well, accountability. Where are you spending the money? So I am in agreement with your point that what applies should apply across the board.
▶ 1:04:43Sen. Welch: I am good with that, but senator grassley I think said better than anybody go and of course he has such credentials on the farm -- the bottom line is that all of us care about are farmers who are actually in the fields and on the tractors. That is who we care about. And so much of what -- the wealth they create goes to so many others. They do not get any of it and it is an incredible crisis and I know we all share that.
▶ 1:05:11Sen. Welch: This is one of the things about a bipartisan program. I have been to nebraska the forms out there -- those people are wonderful. Iowa, the same thing. That is true in vermont. I do call for a vote on this, Mr. chairman. I hear your point and I appreciate it.
▶ 1:05:33Sen. Grassley: I still haven't not figured out this opposition to knowing where this money goes. If he is going to somebody on wall street and does not ever see the farm, if they never get dirt under their fingernails, I think it is simple. We ought to know that. That is something we had a bipartisan bill out of here this would be there. What you want to do. I can assure you of that.
▶ 1:05:59Chair Boozman: So right now if you have a dairy farm of 20 and a dairy farm of 100 and you have a dairy farm of 5000 or 10,000, the requirements do not apply. The payment limitations do not apply. They are all the same. There is nobody looking over that. Would you consider doing a secondary amendment and adding dairy to this?
▶ 1:06:25Sen. Welch: I will be open to considering the legitimate accountability principle we are discussing here on everything, including dairy. I will not do it at this moment without having opportunity to examine it. My mehmet has been out there, the work that senator grassley has been doing has been out there but the principal you are saying I think is a good principle to be applied across the board.
▶ 1:06:51Chair Boozman: For the dairy listeners, do not misunderstand. I don't want to do this to you. And I would ask, if nobody else has anything to comment come out ask that our members oppose the bill. The clerk will call the role. >> senator klobuchar.
▶ 1:07:10Sen. Klobuchar: Aye. >> senator bennet. Senator durbin. >> aye >> senator lujan. Senator warnock. >> aye by proxy. >> senator welch. Senator fetterman. Senator schiff. >> aye. >> senator slotkin. Senator mcconnell.
▶ 1:07:42Sen. Klobuchar: Senator hoeven. Senator ernst. Senator hyde-smith. Senator marshall. >> no. >> senator justice. Senator grassley.
▶ 1:07:57Sen. Grassley: No. >> senator fischer. Senator moran. Chairman boozman. The ayes are 11. The nos are 12.
▶ 1:08:14Chair Boozman: As reported, the men meant fails. Anybody else? Yes. Senator schiff? >> I asked be recognized -- for my amendment cosponsored by senator booker. States across the nation experienced natural disasters resulting in substantial damage to their farms.
▶ 1:08:42Chair Boozman: In 2024 congress approved 21 billion dollars in disaster assistance to produce and allowed funds to flow from usda to states be a block grants. This grant authority has largely been replicated in the underlying bill it is the subject of my amendment. Despite congress making assistance available for all eligible disaster events, usda activated block grants nearly exclusively to states that experienced hurricanes.
▶ 1:09:12Chair Boozman: Eligibility criteria and data requirements were not made public, impeding the ability of states to participate and have transparency. The usda did not make public finalized agreements. California, despite think the largest agricultural state in the union and its farmers experiencing repeated and painful disasters, did not receive a single block grant. The programs are not new and exist across multiple federal agencies.
▶ 1:09:42Chair Boozman: This recent block grant undertaken by usda lacked the accountability and transparency features of programs. We should intend to get a permanent statutory authority to usda to issue block grants for disaster release and practice good governance and lay out a protectable framework. My amendment ensures accountability for taxpayer-funded relief to states and requires transparency in the process of determining state and natural disaster eligibility and how states will administer awarded funds.
▶ 1:10:13Chair Boozman: A section of the bill creates a permanent authority for usda to issue state block grants but I believe the committee should prescribe further core structural requirements similar to other programs. We should want reasonable fiscal responsibility and transparency for american taxpayers to know that all of our home states have a fair shot at relief when producers -- for producers when disaster strikes.
▶ 1:10:39Chair Boozman: We have seen but with respect to any number of federal grant programs, improper considerations given to who gets -- what stays get them on what states do not. It is not credible that california with all the disasters and experienced would not qualify for a single disaster grant so this would provide structure and accountability and transparency to the program.
▶ 1:11:04Chair Boozman: Having said that and given the nature of the market -- the mark up, I will withdraw the amendment. I appreciate consideration while we move forward. I hope the future with bipartisan markup.
▶ 1:11:16Chair Boozman: Thank you, senator schiff. We are more than willing to work with you on this to make sure these things are administered fairly. That is the bottom line. Does anybody else have an amendment? Ok. We'll proceed to title two.
▶ 1:11:48Chair Boozman: Are there any amendments? I am sorry. I am sorry. Ok. Yes. Let's go to title two and does anybody have an amendment? Yes, sir. >> bennett first degree amendment number six. And ask for it to be considered for a vote.
▶ 1:12:17Chair Boozman: So ordered.
▶ 1:12:21Sen. Bennet: Thank you. I want to thank you and the ranking member for holding the mark up. As you said, we are considering this farm bill at a moment of real crisis in rural america. The headwinds have never been stronger. Producers are facing weak prices and higher costs while losing export markets by the day. Drought and wildfires are threatening the rural way of life across our country.
▶ 1:12:49Sen. Bennet: Rural americans are asking themselves whether their family farms and ranches are going to survive and whether the next generation will be able to take over. I met last week with colorado sugar beet growers who stand to be wiped out this year by the combination of drought and falling prices.
▶ 1:13:07Sen. Bennet: They are desperately wondering, like farmers and ranchers all over america, whether the processors of small businesses they depend on will still exist at the end of the year or next year and in the middle of all that being asked to only farm bill that fails to address many of the real challenges of rural communities are facing today.
▶ 1:13:33Sen. Bennet: I used to say thank god that the agriculture committee still exists because this was one of the last places in the senate where democrats and republicans could still work together. While every other committee buckled under the pressures of the partisanship, the act of committing was an exception to that. -- agriculture committee was an exception to that.
▶ 1:13:57Sen. Bennet: About whether we are going to take seriously our generation's responsibility to rural america. The only way to demonstrate that is by approaching our work in a bipartisan manner. I know we did a lot a bipartisan work on this bill but unfortunately we are not there yet. We have done little to confront the basic fact that farm bill policies in the past are no longer working, as chairman grassley said.
▶ 1:14:26Sen. Bennet: Too many farmers are barelytoo s too many farmers are barelytoo e too many farmers are barelytoo g too many farmers are barelytoo n and asking for ad hoc assistance from congress after the damage is done. It fails to substantially support western farmers on issues like wildfire and drought. Nutrition prices, the republican budget bill made it worse for millions of americans by straining state budgets beyond repair.
▶ 1:14:58Sen. Bennet: Colorado farmers and ranchers expect us to do better. Americans in rural and urban areas and everywhere in between expect us to do better to consider policies that support agricultural producers and expand, instead of making their lives more difficult. Strengthening rural hospitals.
▶ 1:15:22Sen. Bennet: Ensuring the next generation will be able to build a future rather than be forced to take a job somewhere else. It's in that context that I think of my amendment, number six. Mr.
▶ 1:15:36Sen. Bennet: Chairman, it would reverse the underlying bill cuts to the environmental quality incentive program equipped and stewardship program csp, farmers and ranchers rely on these programs to reduce costs and remain on the land at a time when farmers are facing some of the highest costs in american history.
▶ 1:16:00Sen. Bennet: Helping farmers and ranchers save water, improve soil, strength and grace lands, reduce erosion, make their operations more resilient to drought and wildfire. In colorado around 800 eligible applications remain unfunded because these programs are already oversubscribed. These are not hypothetical projects. Those are producers who work for the usda and were found eligible for assistance. This isn't just in colorado.
▶ 1:16:30Sen. Bennet: Four of the five states who stand to lose the most are represented on this committee. Arkansas, mississippi, georgia, california. Every state in the country is working -- waiting for these investments. Cutting billions from csp would make it harder for farmers and ranchers to invest in the long-term productivity and resilience of their operations. Investments that help to sustain family farms and strengthen rural communities.
▶ 1:17:01Sen. Bennet: We cannot treat the conservation title of the bill as a zero-sum game. Farmers and ranchers are eager to participate in these programs , the demand is clear and high. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment and I now move for a vote.
▶ 1:17:19Chair Boozman: Anyone else want to comment? Senator klobuchar?
▶ 1:17:24Sen. Klobuchar: Thank you to senator bennet for his work on this. This is such an important part of farmers to good stewards of the land. Some of the shifts that were made hurt the other programs. Thank you.
▶ 1:17:40Chair Boozman: Anybody? I want to commend senator bennet for his work on conservation and again, forestry in general. What we did was add 30% more conservation funding to the baseline. Created two new popular bipartisan programs. Over 70 groups support these programs.
▶ 1:18:08Chair Boozman: American performance, land trust alliance, wildlife mississippi, to name a few. We are not trying to skimp on conservation. But we would be happy to work with you as we work through all of these things.
▶ 1:18:30Sen. Bennet: I would ask for a vote on the amendment.
▶ 1:18:32Chair Boozman: Very good. The clerk will call the troll. [clerk calls roll]
▶ 1:19:13Chair Boozman: >> Ms. ernst? >> Ms. hyde-smith? >> Mr. marshall? >> Mr. tuberville? >> Mr. justice? >> Mr. grassley? >> Mr. thune? >> no by proxy. >> Ms. fischer? >> no. >> Mr. moran? >> no. Chairman bozeman? >> no. >> ayes 11, nos 12.
▶ 1:19:47Chair Boozman: I have an amendment on title three. Ok, sorry. As reported, the amendment failed. Does anyone have an amendment on title three? Ok, if not, we are moving to title for. Does anyone have an amendment there?
▶ 1:20:19Chair Boozman: >> Mr. share?
▶ 1:20:19Chair Boozman: Senator smith, you are smart.
▶ 1:20:25Senator Smith: Thank you, I would like to add my thanks to the chair, the ranking member, and your staff for all the work I know you have done to get us as close as possible in this round to a bill and I appreciate that there are many bipartisan provisions in the bill and I would like to strongly associate myself with the remarks of the ranking member on the importance of addressing the randomness and unfairness of the snap cuts, particularly how those costs are
▶ 1:20:55Senator Smith: Shifted onto states and I hope it can continue to find a new look for a path forward. Mr. chair, I would like to offer , I asked to be recognized to call on my amendment, smith number four, the tribal food sovereignty act. Just her chair, you and I have spoken about these issues. I think for many years.
▶ 1:21:21Senator Smith: Over the course of many years tribal nations around the country have come together to put together a slew of native farm bill provisions that have been almost all of them have been bipartisan and really focused on how we can make sure the farm bill meets and addresses the needs of native people, which is what the amendment is all about. It's for the tribal food sovereignty act that senator hoeven and I have co-lead for many years.
▶ 1:21:50Senator Smith: In the 2018 farm bill 58 bipartisan basis we created the first-ever self-determination authority at usda with a demonstration program. For those that don't follow the policy area closely, the differences for the food distribution programs on reservations, an alternative to snap. You can choose one or the other. The different alternative is a monthly food package.
▶ 1:22:17Senator Smith: What we found with this pilot project, which was passed with bipartisan support in 2018, is that if you give tribes authority to run their own programs, you get much better results and it doesn't costs anymore. So, what we are doing with this amendment is basically to take this pilot project and make it permanent.
▶ 1:22:43Senator Smith: It would allow tribes to run their respective reservations and help to address the significant supply chain disruptions that have left this strategy with shortages of food over the last several years. This was a big problem in the biden administration, some folks may remember. We heard a lot about it from tribal nations around the country. Thank you very much, Mr. chair. I ask that this be considered for a vote.
▶ 1:23:13Chair Boozman: Any other discussion?
▶ 1:23:19Senator: Supportive of the amendment and thank you to senator smith for good work.
▶ 1:23:23Chair Boozman: As I understand the amendment expands the demonstration program. The problem is the cbo scoring issues. What we would like to do is, you know, at some point get this bill passed. We would like to include report language supporting this and then, again, working with you and others, continuing with cbl to see if we can give this, get this worked out.
▶ 1:23:53Chair Boozman: You know, we would like to be supportive. We cannot accept the amendment now on our side. We do make a commitment. Everything you said is right.
▶ 1:24:02Sen. Smith: Thank you, Mr. chair. I would appreciate the opportunity to work with you on going on this. It is true that the text is currently being reviewed by the cbo. It's important, I will know for everyone listening to this, that this does include a small authorization of $2 million to pay for additional administrative expenses but the pilot has shown that this does not costs additional money. Thank you, Mr. chair.
▶ 1:24:34Senator: I would like to express my support as well and appreciate the work that senator smith has done on this program. It's important and she did a nice job.
▶ 1:24:47Chair Boozman: With that, the clerk will call the roll. >> Sen. klobuchar? >> aye. >> Sen. bennet? >> aye. >> Sen. smith? >> aye. >> Sen. durbin? >> aye. >> Sen. booker? >> aye. >> Sen. lujan? >> aye. >> Sen. warnock? >> aye by proxy. >> Sen. welch? >> aye. >> Sen. fetterman? >> aye. >> Sen. schiff? >> aye. >> Sen. slotkin? >> aye by proxy. >> Sen. mcconnell? >> no by proxy. >> Sen. hoeven? >> no. >> Sen. ernst? >> no. >> Sen. hyde-smith? >> no. >> Sen. marshall?
▶ 1:25:20Chair Boozman: >> no. >> Sen. tuberville? >> no. >> Sen. justice? >> no. >> Sen. grassley? >> no. >> Sen. thune? >> no. >> Sen. fischer? >> no. >> Sen. moran? >> no by proxy. >> Sen. boozman?
▶ 1:25:37Chair Boozman: No. >> the ayes are 11, nos are 12.
▶ 1:25:45Chair Boozman: Are there any other amendments? Senator? >> I'm very rightful to be recognized to call up my amendment, booker 11, to be considered for a vote. Since we passed the farm bill in 2018, this nest -- nation has seen something that should devastate us all in join us in a sense of urgency. We have lost 150,000 farms in our country. Most of them are small farms.
▶ 1:26:16Chair Boozman: I have spoken to farmers across my state and across our nation who face extreme challenges at a time when our nation faces a healthy food crisis also. Often when I get done with these remarks people asked me if there are many examples of programs that address both of these crises and the example I often point to is a program built out of necessity when the usda began investing significantly in a strategy where fresh food was purchased from local farmers at a fair price and delivered
▶ 1:26:48Chair Boozman: Directly into local food banks and schools. In new jersey, food bank shelves were lined with fresh fruits and vegetables that working families could access when they couldn't quite make ends meet. Farmers across america have told me that this program saved their farms, literally, giving them a fair price to grow healthy foods for their communities.
▶ 1:27:10Chair Boozman: In 2025 the trump administration ripped over one billion dollars in food contracts away without warnings, leaving farmers who had already planted crops out in the cold. Leaving schools with gutted budgets and food banks struggling to feed record numbers of hungry people. The cancellation was destructive. I believe it was a betrayal of rural america and our children.
▶ 1:27:37Chair Boozman: We continue to spend billions in taxpayer money on farm bailouts every year to keep the status quo afloat, but $1 billion per year on this program that actually keeps farms afloat by investing in small farmers and helps our local regional food systems is suddenly too expensive? It makes no sense to me whatsoever.
▶ 1:27:58Chair Boozman: Everywhere I go, farmers say they would rather put food on the plates of americans then just get checks that don't have them at all participating in these local food systems. My amendment is simple, restoring the billion dollars in mandatory annual funding so the investment and healthy food and healthy communities stays in place year after year. We must invest in local farmers and find ways to feed our children healthy food. The lf s program does this.
▶ 1:28:30Chair Boozman: Mr. chair, with that?
▶ 1:28:34Senator: It's booker six.
▶ 1:28:36Sen. Booker: Corrected, amy klobuchar, always ahead of me, it's booker 06, forgive me. I ask that booker 06 be voted on and I request a roll call vote, sir.
▶ 1:28:49Chair Boozman: Are there any other comments? The clerk will call the roll. >> Sen. klobuchar? >> aye. >> Sen. bennet? >> aye. >> Sen. smith? >> aye. >> Sen. durbin? >> aye. >> Sen. booker? >> aye. >> Sen. lujan? >> aye. >> Sen. warnock? >> aye. >> no by proxy. -- >> no. -- >> aye by proxy. >> Sen. welch? >> aye. >> Sen. fetterman? >> aye.
▶ 1:29:19Chair Boozman: >> Sen. schiff? >> aye. >> Sen. slotkin? >> aye by proxy. >> Sen. mcconnell? >> no by proxy. >> Sen. hoeven? >> no. >> Sen. ernst? >> no. >> Sen. hyde-smith? >> no. >> Sen. marshall? >> no. >> Sen. tuberville? >> no. >> Sen. justice? >> no. >> Sen. grassley? >> no. >> Sen. thune? >> no by proxy. >> Sen. fischer? >> no. >> Sen. moran? >> no by proxy. >> chair boozman?
▶ 1:29:51Chair Boozman: No. >> the ayes are 11, the nos are 12.
▶ 1:30:00Chair Boozman: As reported, the amendment fails. Senator?
▶ 1:30:07Senator: I ask recognition for my amendment, lujan 11. Thank you to senator's fetterman and gillibrand for their work on this important issue. This amendment recognizes a great injustice created back in 1981 here in the united states. In 1981 the people of puerto rico were removed from the snap program. American brothers and sisters.
▶ 1:30:36Senator: Again, american brothers and sisters are removed from a program that all of us that live in the states benefit from. In 1981, friends were treated differently. I know a lot of my colleagues support the people of puerto rico. A lot of my colleagues visit puerto rico and provide so much support in so many ways.
▶ 1:31:01Senator: I'm hoping that we can earn support to come together to address this injustice created back in 1981, to ensure that again, american citizens are not treated differently. It is simply long past time that we write this wrong and I urge my colleagues to consider this important issue. Mr.
▶ 1:31:22Senator: Chairman, I would remind us all that this is a bipartisan issue, issue supported by democrats and republicans, including the republican governor of puerto rico, former colleague of ours in the house. Support in the house as well. Mr. chairman, in the hopes of working together to address this issue at this time, I withdraw this amendment.
▶ 1:31:49Senator: >> does anyone else want to comment on this? The only other thing I would say is that several other officials have come to this country and talked about this. It's a bipartisan issue and is something important and need to work towards transition. Right now, as you know, the scores in question are around what it would costs but we are committed to helping you. Appreciate your leadership in this area.
▶ 1:32:15Sen. Lujan: I look forward to working with you on this.
▶ 1:32:18Chair Boozman: Anyone else?
▶ 1:32:20Sen. Lujan: I would ask to be recognized to call my amendment, lujan number 10. A straightforward amendment insuring that section 32 transfer for school meals is made in full and used to support the school breakfast and lunch programs. This is not new spending and it does not reduce funding for any agricultural program in this legislation.
▶ 1:32:48Sen. Lujan: It simply reinforces a commitment already established in law. School nutrition professionals across the country continue to face financial pressure with many reporting that reimbursement levels do not cover the full costs of serving meals to our constituents that are in school. Congress established the section 32 school nutrition transfer for a reason. Schools depend on those resources when planning and operating their meal programs.
▶ 1:33:17Sen. Lujan: Students depend on these meal programs. I know how grouchy we get if we don't have coffee in the morning, much less not having a meal. I know that will support our students and hope it's something we can work towards. When congress directs funds towards children's nutrition, school should be able to count on those dollars being available and delivered.
▶ 1:33:40Sen. Lujan: Ensuring that happens is consistent with the intent of the law and with our responsibility to the children and communities these program support. Mr. chairman, I would welcome your commitment to working with me before the bill reaches the floor to make sure the full section 32 child nutrition transfer is protected and released in a timely manner, whether through report language, committee oversight, or another appropriate mechanism.
▶ 1:34:07Sen. Lujan: I look forward to working together on the issue and would appreciate language in the community work reflecting the expectation funding designated child nutrition programs be made available for that purpose. Having said that, Mr. chairman, I withdraw the amendment and do not call it up for a vote at this time.
▶ 1:34:24Chair Boozman: We will be glad to work with you on this and, again, as we go forward.
▶ 1:34:32Sen. Lujan: Appreciate that. If there is no one ahead of me, I do have one we will call up for a vote. I'd like to call up lujan number one. We have all been talking about this, last july there was a piece of legislation, I think it was senate bill one, the big beautiful bill, eliminating $187 billion from an important food program. The acronym we are all familiar with, snap.
▶ 1:35:05Sen. Lujan: This program, I believe, is the most effective antihunger program that we have for people across america. It has always been supported in a bipartisan way. The $187 billion cut was a partisan decision. It splintered the coalition key for a bipartisan farm bill to pass out of this committee for 50 years. I hope that we can find a way to get there.
▶ 1:35:31Sen. Lujan: I would remind you all that we have all seen the charts in the numbers. The vote today with the changes to snap is going to increase costs in every one of your states and make less available for food. Plain and simple, those are the facts. I certainly hope we can find a way to address that.
▶ 1:35:52Sen. Lujan: If there is a one-year delay, how about a one-year delay that doesn't increase costs on the states as everyone struggles to make sure that people are fed when food is more and more unaffordable. Every single democratic senator at this table today wants to see a farm bill passed in a bipartisan way. I hope that we can get there. Senator grassley touched on this. In order to do that, we have to make an effort to fix what was broken.
▶ 1:36:23Sen. Lujan: Senate democrats have been fair from the beginning of the process. We want a two-year delay to this devastating snap cut. I want $187 billion put back in the program. That's where I start. Let's work together. Everyone says find a way to compromise and work together. This is one way to do it.
▶ 1:36:45Sen. Lujan: Instead, this bill as currently written, if we were offered a delay in the cuts to these food programs it was paid for by an even deeper cut and as I reminded us all, language that would increase costs in every state. That's why there's a strong bipartisan coalition of governors, democrats, republicans, county commissioners, democrats and republicans, who want to see this addressed. $187 billion wasn't enough.
▶ 1:37:15Sen. Lujan: According to cbo this makes an additional cut to the food program. So, this is another vote that will now reduce access to food in our states. These are not just numbers on a page. You have met the constituents. You have spoken to them at town halls, church, the ball game or the grocery store. You know these folks. You know the families. I know I do. Friends, family, fellow parishioners.
▶ 1:37:44Sen. Lujan: Taking nearly $200 billion in purchasing power doesn't just help the that hurt the families and kids, it also affects the farmers in the program. I see a lot of great photos of many of us at farmers markets buying local food and whatnot. There will be less people getting that local food and helping the smallest of farmers at these markets.
▶ 1:38:08Sen. Lujan: Heck, in new mexico with some of these programs like double up bucks, people can get great lamb, beef, poultry, pork, in addition to fruit and vegetables. The program works well. 5 million americans, 1.5 million children have already lost access to these two programs. Now, these are programs that I think are meant to be eliminated. Causing more hunger in america is simply shameful.
▶ 1:38:40Sen. Lujan: It's not what I learned on sundays, it's not what I learned with the sermons that moved me and the lessons I was taught as a kid. This amendment delays the implementation of the snap devastation caused shifts by two years as well. Living to the spirit of what's in here but saying let's not increase costs in the state.
▶ 1:39:04Sen. Lujan: The charts the ranking member showed us a few weeks ago showed that there are more states represented by republicans than by democrats that was he devastating cuts and increased costs. I'm trying to help my constituents here, but also my republican colleagues. The ones that voted for donald trump. We can find a way to work on this one together. I urge you all to support the effort. Think about it, pray on it. But that, Mr.
▶ 1:39:34Sen. Lujan: Chairman, I now move that lujan number one be voted on.
▶ 1:39:40Senator: Mr. chairman?
▶ 1:39:40Chair Boozman: Yes?
▶ 1:39:44Senator: Yes, I would like to have a moment here. We don't want anyone to go hungry. We don't. When the working bill family tax cut bill was passed, we added a year. Then another year. That's two years of error rate. Why can the states not bring down the error rates in 2.5 years, bringing more funding available?
▶ 1:40:13Senator: Either way, no one is taking away food, it just means the state has to pay a bigger percent. I think it's reasonable that states would be able to get there error rates under control and go back in the resurrection.
▶ 1:40:31Chair Boozman: Respond?
▶ 1:40:34Sen. Lujan: Mr. chairman, those of us paying attention to the error rate program knows that it's broken. By republicans or democrats, by all of us. It's the reason they keep getting out of control. People need help getting food. They also move. Moving contributes to the error rate.
▶ 1:41:04Sen. Lujan: We have to fix that, it's absolutely program -- broken. I know I was pushing back a bit when we tried to get more milk and two family homes and I voted for more kids to have more food. Eliminating dollars to schools makes it harder to get that done . Mr. chairman, I hope that everyone here that once to see families getting food, that we can commit to work together on a bipartisan basis over the next year.
▶ 1:41:33Sen. Lujan: Let's fix the error rate program, fix it and modernize it . I hope and pray that we can get there.
▶ 1:41:44Senator: Can I respond? So, if we need to fix the error rate and how it's calculated, let's do that. Again, I have not heard that solution or what it looks like. I can't speak to every state, with the number of kids getting free breakfast get that on top of it.
▶ 1:42:13Senator: And then we are sending things home with kids as well. We are spending, I don't know, $150 billion per year on food programs when you put them together. Snap is one piece of that. We want to make sure the best way to get food to people.
▶ 1:42:36Senator: I'm actually better with school lunches, those kinds of programs, where I know staff dollars are being spent. But Mr. trump? A lot of us around this table have been executives. I was and I came into a city with a lot of fraud and mismanagement and cut the budget . I don't know if anyone cut their budgets as much as I did.
▶ 1:43:05Senator: I cut it 25%, made most of my departments more efficient. Let me tell you something about seeing so-called error rate problem. This is not equivalent to a fraud late. The usda's owner information says that the error rate includes overpayments and underpayments.
▶ 1:43:35Senator: What really bothers me, and I know I share these values with many around the table, matthew 25, you were hungry and I fed you. From january of 25 until now, we have seen hunger in food insecurity skyrocket in the country. We have seen our food pantries in every state have more demand, not less demand.
▶ 1:44:01Senator: So, as a guy who is as experienced as anyone around the table at cutting fraud, waste, and abuse in government, this is the wrong way to go about fixing the problem if you are seeing the very people the program was designed to serve pending up more hungry. Now, I don't know if anyone else in the table -- around the table lives in a census tract like I do below the poverty line.
▶ 1:44:30Senator: I live in a community that is for. We don't mistake wealth was worth. I live in the central award of newark, new jersey and my neighbors rely on these programs. This isn't just showering people with money. These are pennies going to families to afford healthy food. I'm appreciative of the bipartisan things we have done to expand what you can buy with snap payments and make more sense and rationality to the program.
▶ 1:44:58Senator: In new jersey I am seeing no one around this table once, more people going hungry. The pressure we're putting because of the way we are going about it, which to me is ham-handed, is not the best way to get at the problem and solve it with other casualty being the very people, especially children , everyone around this table has called for morally and politically that we should be serving.
▶ 1:45:29Senator: Back up senator booker's point, I would like to pose a record from 30 faith groups opposing the bill as is. I will repeat my statement that I truly think we can get this done.
▶ 1:45:43Senator: To answer senator marshall, I was looking at the error rates, and senator booker had some good points, but despite the good work of the chairman and the acknowledgment that this was a problem, that this was set up to get one vote from a senator in alaska in lieu of the night, when it's just one year when you go into the second year a complete disparity exists.
▶ 1:46:10Senator: Delaware's error rate is 16% and they get off scott free for two years from a cause shift. Whereas some of these other states, like oklahoma, 11%, they don't. Michigan, they have a 9.89% error rate.
▶ 1:46:37Senator: So, what we are asking for is simply to not have a situation where one state that has doubled the error rate of my home state failed to get off scott free for two years. There is just no way that any other program is set up that way. Nothing. You cannot find anything in law that did something like that and by doing those two years, you even the playing field so that all the states can bring down their errors in the same manner.
▶ 1:47:08Senator: I would also like to enter into the record a letter from all of my counties. Some states did this on the local level. They have been doing their snap benefits so that they can get closer to where the people are. It's a number like that, not red or blue. In our case this will be on the county taxpayers. The only way they can do this is on property taxes. That's why they are opposed.
▶ 1:47:36Senator: From the beginning I have said we are so close in our negotiations with a number of these titles that we agree on and we simply have to get through the tape by making some kind of agreement so that everyone is on the same playing field when it comes to reducing error rates.
▶ 1:47:53Senator: Mr. chairman? Let's take a couple of steps back. I mean, this began with the republicans cutting 180 $7 billion from snap. Food insecurity is a real problem in our country right now.
▶ 1:48:19Senator: It's been exacerbated by the trump economy, the terrorists raising the prices on groceries, on everything. At the very moment when people are seeing the prices go up, poor people are the most marginalized members of the human community. They are getting hit with these cuts.
▶ 1:48:47Senator: That one, big beautiful bill created food insecurity for some 4.5 million americans. Included in that is an estimated 1.5 million children. Cap hearing all of the stuff about able-bodied men. 1.5 million children. I don't know anything beautiful about that. It's unconscionable, not beautiful. Now this unfunded mandate around the error rate?
▶ 1:49:18Senator: Let's call it what it is, shifting and unfunded mandate to states. Governors and blue and red states are saying they cannot afford this cpl estimates that this would cut snap by $1.294 billion. Another $1.2 billion. This bill.
▶ 1:49:42Senator: So, I'm hearing from folks who run food banks may state, they are saying they haven't seen anything like this, lines around the block of insecure people. I think we can do better than this. I believe in addressing waste, fraud, and abuse, as my colleagues like to call it.
▶ 1:50:06Senator: This error rate and approach is really about creating a pretext for shifting and unfunded mandate to the states and of the people that were sent here to serve, who are feeling the pain right now, especially in red, rural communities across georgia.
▶ 1:50:23Senator: Mr. chairman? I just have to respectfully disagree. We are spending 100 billion dollars per year on the step program right now. The only people from the working family tax cuts bill that lost the snap benefits were folks that were not willing to work 20 hours per week, go to school, volunteer. They were healthy, healthy people.
▶ 1:50:53Senator: They have to be healthy and willing to do something. Isn't it a good thing to help lift people up, get them a job so they don't have to be on government assistance? I think it's misstated that we took away anyone's snap benefits.
▶ 1:51:12Senator: They chose, they chose not to volunteer work and go to school but at the end of the day we are doing $100 billion and on the error rate, why are we trying to coach these estates up? Why is it a misconception that we don't think that these states can get the rates down in a year and a half? Is it impossible to expect the state to become more competent.
▶ 1:51:44Senator: All respect to my colleague, we are seeing a situation in which you are damne d if you do and if you don't. Folks who correctly error rate are in trouble, folks who don't are in trouble.
▶ 1:52:01Senator: I don't think the 1.5 million children who are food insecure as a result of the one big ugly bill are able-bodied men and I don't think that people will be binding -- walk -- lighting up around the clock around food banks in georgia. They are saying this to me as I move around my state. I don't think they are choosing this.
▶ 1:52:26Sen. Klobuchar: 's statistics on the 1.5 million kids have been tossed off the program since the big beautiful bill passed.
▶ 1:52:35Senator: Can I be recognized? [whispering]
▶ 1:52:41Senator: Thank you. I think that this is a really important debate and we know our states have to get to a point where they don't have this huge discrepancy with the error rates . I have worked really hard with our friends across the aisle to try to find a solution to this.
▶ 1:53:02Senator: I think that what was done in the big beautiful bill favored certain states and doesn't allow for some of those states to really make the corrections as necessary. We haven't been able to find a solution yet, but I think we need to keep working together on this. I want to make a comment on an issue, I have worked within the snap program and we want to make sure those children are receiving healthy meals and are receiving the food.
▶ 1:53:32Senator: I love when we have our healthy food projects and through various programs within our farm bill. I make a comment and I don't have an amendment. Today, it's been mobic -- lobbied heavily against, disallowing fast food within the snap program.
▶ 1:53:51Senator: We often have families that will rely on mcdonald's to fill their children's stomachs rather than going and purchasing a proper hot meal at a sit down restaurant, that's a hot meal program.
▶ 1:54:07Senator: We want to make sure that they are healthy meals and not just feeling a bunch a family of four going through a drive-through purchasing mcdonald's, and yes, I'm calling on mcdonald's fast food change -- fast food chain. $50 on one meal if you are using snap dollars go to a store, buy the ingredients. I know it's going to take a bit longer, that's the argument.
▶ 1:54:37Senator: Heaven forbid we actually spend time constructing a healthy meal for her children. So, again, I'm just throwing it out there, I think it's something we need to work on, making sure we are actually providing the dollars that are so needed on healthy meals for our children. Thank you.
▶ 1:55:00Senator: Chairman?
▶ 1:55:02Senator: I defer. I insist.
▶ 1:55:07Senator: I want to ask two things. Having been superintendent of the denver public schools I want to mention the importance of the availability of the school breakfast mentioned earlier to my colleague. It's critically important for people to have a healthy confer their children. There is no other way for them to learn.
▶ 1:55:30Senator: Unfortunately, we are living at a time in american history, and I'm sorry to say this, when our hunger rates are rising and our hunger rates among children are rising and it is the result of an economy working really, really well for the people at the very top and not for people all over america, including I would say in particular in rural communities in this country and in particular among children. The job of children is to go to school and study and succeed.
▶ 1:56:02Senator: It's not to have a job when they are in elementary school. It's to have the benefit of the kind of bounty that the senator from kansas was talking about earlier. We had the opportunity to work together to try to do that and we have to address it. Today we won't be able to have this discussion in a fulsome way today. We should be asking ourselves why in the richest country in the world children are getting hungrier and hungrier and hungrier. It's a disgrace that we are in the situation we are in.
▶ 1:56:34Senator: With respect to the legislation itself, it was something designed in the middle of the ninth to be able to and then get that final vote on the floor of the senate to pass the trump tax cuts. That's why we are here having this conversation and it's completely irrational.
▶ 1:56:54Senator: The deal that was cut -- thank you, senator ernst, for your work on it -- the deal that was cut was a deal to reward states with the highest error rates and punish the states with the middle error rates, of which minnesota is one. We have seen the effect of that in the time since the bill has been passed.
▶ 1:57:17Senator: The ranking member mentioned the situation in florida the states correcting their error rates are making matters worse for them because of the way the system was designed.
▶ 1:57:32Senator: If you are interested in, and ensure everyone is, creating a set of incentives leading to better results, with fraud, abuse, and waste in these systems. It's the opposite of the system we have today.
▶ 1:58:01Senator: Getting one vote to pass tax cuts for the wealthiest people in america. I would like to ask the ranking member, can you describe how this is working across the state right now?
▶ 1:58:20Senator: I did this for your first point on the work of superintendent, following up on what reverend warnock and senator lujan were speaking about, I have a letter I would like to in the record from the american academy of pediatrics dedicated to the health of all children opposing this version of the bill. I want to keep emphasizing that we can fix this.
▶ 1:58:45Senator: If somehow the white house and find it $70 billion extra for ice and ask for $70 billion for iran, we can fix this second year. We will then be able to really rid ourselves of the stain of this idea that the highest error rate states get rewarded.
▶ 1:59:07Senator: Again, the fact that florida decreased their error rate and the answer to that from us was sorry, florida, thanks for decreasing the rate, now you owe one billion dollars, or another state increases error rates and we say we are so happy about that you get off $600 million. Or others just hover at the top where it's like you get off this. It creates this complete disparity.
▶ 1:59:36Senator: We want to reduce these rates and I also want to thank senator fetterman for the work that he and senator wyden did to. There is a cybersecurity measuring here that we think will be helpful, chips, for improving the program, but as we know all of this will take two years, we believe, to get it all in place.
▶ 1:59:58Senator: That is why there are many, many reasons we are asking for this but one of them is this rank disparity between the high and middle error rates, including states in the middle group like texas or oklahoma that brought the rates down but not enough to get to the 6% level.
▶ 2:00:16Senator: As senator booker explained, this is simply states self reporting errors after people come to them and they find out that they either had given them too little money, because they lost a job, or too much money, because they got a job. Sometimes an adjustment is made. That's what this is about. The chips in the other things could help us to get that information more accurately and there's a reason it's almost all small states in that group.
▶ 2:00:47Senator: Not all, wisconsin is in there. It's states like vermont, iowa, the virgin islands. All of them have these lower error rates and they tend to almost be all small states. It's easier for them to be in touch with what's going on in their state.
▶ 2:01:06Senator: That is why, again, we have got to look at this for what it is and try to make it so it's not the only program and the laws that rewards states with high error rates and we need to put them on the same footing so they can all reduce error rates.
▶ 2:01:23Chair Boozman: I want to say something quick and then I would like for senator thune to come in, if you would do. We are talking to the white house. The reality is the senate pays out a .5 billion every month. 10% of that is in errors, most of it overpayment. There is no excuse for that. It's not even counted as an error unless you have a greater than $58 mistake.
▶ 2:01:56Chair Boozman: The average snap recipient gets about $200 a month. It's not even an error unless you, your error is greater than 58%. Greater than 25%. So, the is much higher and there's no excuse for that. Senator booker was an executive in his community. Any executive of a company wouldn't put up with that for five minutes. No company could stay in business with that kind of error rate.
▶ 2:02:24Chair Boozman: I have worked hard to get us a deal and I can tell you that most of my conference doesn't care about this. Senator thune has worked hard on this with others, but we have visited with the white house and got the best deal we could get and I believe that working together we can get these error rates down. I don't disagree with the unfairness of all of the other stuff, but there's no reason we can't work together.
▶ 2:02:52Chair Boozman: This was never designed to be something that was going to extract money from states. This was a cudgel to make the states with this terrible, by any standard, error rate. It's just not defensible. We've got the state's attention and they are working very hard to get their error rates down.
▶ 2:03:23Chair Boozman: What concerns me is they are working hard and the number isn't going down. There's a lot of stuff we can look at, we can do that, and I can tell you that the best deal we can give you is a year. I thought the battle, fluttered really hard in this was it.
▶ 2:03:52Senator Thune: The answer is yes. We want to make sure everybody in this country this program gets this program, that it's available and is there for them. Many of us on this committee, I've been on this committee for pretty much every, maybe with one exception, for two years in my time in congress, house and senate, this is my fifth farm bill and on every farm bill those of us who represent production agriculture states have particular titles of the
▶ 2:04:22Senator Thune: Bills we care a lot about. Commodity, conservation, disaster, credit, things like that, it only makes up about 50% to 20% of the entire spend. 85% is in nutrition. So, it's these programs and there is a lot of passion about them and I think it's important we try to get them right. Having an error rate of over 10% is not right.
▶ 2:04:50Senator Thune: A few years ago, I think it was 2021, august, the previous administration unilaterally increased by $300 billion spending in this program with no oversight from congress. I didn't see anybody here saying anything about that at the time. That congress ought to have some input, spending 3 billion in taxpayer money without input. Not a vote. Just a decision by an executive branch agency.
▶ 2:05:20Senator Thune: That's not the right way to do this, either. We have to do the oversight here because it is our job. What we try to do was structure something that would eliminate for one year the, a lot of the hassle that states are dealing with. The proposal, as I understand it, that the chairman put forward, if it in fact goes into effect, this year it would save california $1.8 billion.
▶ 2:05:51Senator Thune: Pennsylvania, $400.7 million. Michigan, $306 million. That's out of state coffers. If this doesn't pass, if we do nothing, that's what