Updated at 9:40 a.m. on Friday to include a statement from Sen. Ted Cruz.

WASHINGTON — Amendments by Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to the Senate farm bill requiring food stamp recipients to work or be enrolled in job training failed to make it into the final legislation, which passed 86-11 late Thursday afternoon.

Amendments by the senators mirrored a provision in a controversial House bill that passed by two votes last week. The bill now heads to a conference committee to work out differences in the two pieces of legislation.

Cruz's amendment — offered Wednesday and voted down Thursday, 68-30 — would have required able-bodied adults 18 to 59 without dependents to work or participate in job training for 100 hours a month to qualify for food stamps. Recipients who did not meet the requirement faced a reduction of benefits proportionate to the number of hours they failed to work or a complete termination of benefits.

Cornyn's amendment, introduced Thursday, would have required those same adults to work or be in job training for 20 hours a week to qualify. It increased that amount to 25 hours a week in 2026 to equal the 100 hours per month that Cruz proposed. Recipients who failed to prove compliance were to become ineligible to receive food stamps for a year, with subsequent violations resulting in a three-year suspension. The amendment — which didn't get a vote — closely matched what was approved in the House.

Advocates for low-income Americans said that the punishments in both proposed amendments were "cruel" and would result in families losing a much-needed safety net due to events out of their control such as a sick child, bad weather or transportation problems.

In Texas, the penalty for violating state work requirements is a month's suspension for a first violation. Second and third violations add months on to the loss of benefits.

Conservatives said existing policies enable low-income Americans to remain out of work and in poverty.

"Expanding food stamps all too often traps millions of Americans in long-term dependency," Cruz said in a statement. "By strengthening work requirements, this amendment empowers Americans who are experiencing economic hardship, and equips them with the resources they need to rejoin the workforce and climb the economic ladder."

"The amendment targeted the more than a third of the country who live in areas with no work requirements," Cruz said Thursday on the Senate floor. "Thirty-three states have some kind of waivers on the work requirements." Of those states, 28 have partial waivers and five have complete waivers.

"I think it makes complete sense to have able-bodied adults be required to either work or train for work or do community service as part of the welfare benefit associated with food stamps," Cornyn said on a call with reporters Thursday afternoon. He said he supported Cruz's amendment and later voted for it.

Cornyn said his amendment was a necessary "safeguard" of taxpayer dollars. "Recipients gaming the system take funds away from those who truly need them," he said in a statement.

Advocates for the working poor dispute the need for such a safeguard, and reject the idea that there is widespread "gaming." The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has one of the lowest fraud rates for federal programs, according the Department of Agriculture.

The final Senate legislation -- which Cornyn and Cruz voted for -- leaves food stamp policy largely unchanged.

"I voted yes to move this bill to conference, in the hopes that the House will rightly insist on strengthening work requirements in the final legislation," Cruz said in a statement Friday.

In addition to work requirements and funding for job training programs, the House bill takes away the flexibility for states to set income and asset cutoffs for food stamps. It sets a national income cap of 130 percent of the federal poverty line.

Some states provide food stamps for families that earn up to twice the federal level. Texas' cap is 165 percent, and the House bill would reduce the number of Texans eligible for food stamps by 125,000 in the next few years.