The 217-210 vote represents a victory for Majority Leader Eric Cantor. House approves food stamps cut

The House narrowly approved a Republican plan Thursday to cut billions from food stamps by tightening eligibility rules and ending state waivers that have allowed able-bodied workers to continue to get help when unemployed for more than three months.

The 217-210 vote represents a victory for Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) who has promoted the bill as a revival of the spirit that led to welfare reform in the 1990’s.


But the tactics were extraordinary with no committee markup to review the 109-page package, nor amendments permitted on the floor. And by pushing the farm bill debate so far to the right, the majority leader risks making it impossible to reach a larger deal this fall with the Democratic Senate.

( Also on POLITICO: SNAP showdown set in house)

Indeed, the House package promises $39 billion in savings over the coming decade—nearly 10 times what the Senate approved in June. The poorest households with children are largely protected, but 3.8 million people could be cut from the rolls in 2014 and hundreds of thousands of households would see their benefits reduced.

“It makes me question if the Republican leadership really wants a farm bill,” said Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) in opposition. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbi Stabenow (D-Mich.) agreed.

“We have never before seen this kind of partisanship injected into a Farm Bill,” she said of the vote. “ Not only does this House bill represent a shameful attempt to kick millions of families in need off of food assistance, it’s also a monumental waste of time. The bill will never pass the Senate, and will never be signed by the President.”

( Also on POLITICO: House GOP seeks cuts in food stamps)

Caught in the middle, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) pleaded for support even as he orchestrated a series of exchanges on the floor to let anxious Republicans vent their concern about the impact on vulnerable populations like veterans.

“My goal is to get a five-year farm bill enacted,” Lucas said. “This is a step toward that goal. Quite simply it shouldn’t be this hard to pass a bill that ensures all of us in the economy have enough to eat. And that’s what a farm bill does.”

“I know you will vote your conscience but let me go to conference with the Senate with the maximum number of options to work through.”

Democrats, whose support will be pivotal to Lucas down the road, were unconvinced. All 195 voted no, and with 15 Republicans also opposing the cuts, the GOP had to pull back loyal moderates like New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen –who had been leaning no—to preserve the narrow win.

( Opinion: Defending food stamps in fight on hunger)

Members held up photographs of low income beneficiaries entitled “The Face of Hunger” for C-SPAN cameras. When Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.) invoked Genesis —“God created Adam, placed him in the Garden to work it” —Fudge shot back that the Bible also mentioned the “poor and hungry over 200 times.”

“It is terrible policy wrapped in a terrible process…It was just cooked up in the majority leader’s office as some sort of Heritage Foundation fever dream,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). “It is a rotten thing to do.”

( POLITICO reports: What to watch this week in Congress)

“It is just unconscionable that they would think this is the road to prosperity,” said California Rep. George Miller, the ranking Democrat on the House Education and Labor Committee. “That you get to the road to prosperity by attacking the most vulnerable in our society.”

Proponents argue that the $39 billion cut translates to a modest 5 percent reduction over 10 years and is long overdue given the rapid growth in spending for food stamps—formally titled the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP.

“The arguments you will hear from the other side are just theatrics,” said Rep. Michael Conaway (R-Tex.). “We are not talking about eliminating the entire SNAP program. We’re committed to finding solutions that work with the resources we actually have.”

“The reforms made by this bill will put people on the path to self-sufficiency and independence,” Cantor told the House. The goal he said was “to help people when they need it most with what they want most which is a job.”

Nonetheless, the impact is severe in the first few years. The Agriculture Department is currently spending about $76.4 billion annually on SNAP benefits. By 2015, the combination of the Republican plan and other reductions already in the works will bring that down to about $67.35 billion, a $9 billion or 12 percent drop.

“It really surprises me,” said the Rev. Stephen Blaire, the Bishop of Stockton and chairman of the committee on domestic justice and human development for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. “I don’t think they understand people at the poverty level,” he told POLITICO. “It is an assistance that has so many additional benefits to health and the community.”

The background to Thursday’s vote was a long history of antagonism between Cantor and the Agriculture Committee over the writing of a new farm bill—both in this Congress and the last.

This summer’s battles have focused most on food stamps—both the level of savings and the majority leader’s desire to impose a regime of tougher SNAP work requirements akin to the TANF (the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) approach that came out of welfare reform.

With Southerland, Cantor promoted an early amendment to authorize a broad “pilot program” using a carrot-and-stick approach to move states toward applying TANF-like rules to food stamps.

Governors were promised the ability to keep half of any savings achieved by cutting SNAP enrollment. At the same time, ongoing job training programs in states like New York and Washington were threatened by the loss of federal matching funds if they did not fall in line.

Cantor pressed a reluctant Lucas to consider a rollback of the state waivers that that have allowed able-bodied adults without dependents to continue to get aid when they are meeting the requirement of working 20 hours a week.

Dozens of governors, including many Republicans, have embraced these waivers during the recession. But as the food stamp rolls have grown, these individuals have become a major target for those looking for savings. And Fox News recently featured a rocker-surfer in California buying lobster with a portion of his $200 monthly benefit.

The blanket repeal of these waivers adds the most money —$19 billion over 10 years—to the food stamp package first reported by Lucas in June. The Southerland language was wrapped in as well by Cantor.

“The wrong policies can destroy a person’s self-identity and lull them into a life of dependence,” Cantor said. “The right policies can lift people out of poverty and on a path to independence.”

By contrast, Robert Greenstein, a food stamp advocate and head of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, was scathing. Greenstein said the House action marked “ a new low for an already dysfunctional Congress. It would increase hunger and hardship all across our country.”

“For decades, policymakers have shared a bipartisan commitment to reducing hunger and hardship. This legislation turns its back on that commitment.”