The bill is a victory for Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts and ranking member Debbie Stabenow, who held fast to the bipartisan approach they used in writing its Senate version. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Agriculture Farm bill compromise primed for passage

The compromise farm bill unveiled Monday night avoids partisan minefields on food stamps and commodity policy that would have jeopardized its chances of clearing Congress before the end of the year.

Leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees rejected sweeping changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that House Republicans and President Donald Trump had sought, clearing a path for bipartisan support in both chambers. The final bill also sidesteps a Senate attempt to tighten limits on subsidies for wealthier farmers.


The bill, which has an estimated price tag of $867 billion over a decade, could have a floor vote in the House as soon as Wednesday.

Quick passage in the House would allow the Senate to vote on the bill later this week. Congressional leaders want to get the compromise legislation to Trump’s desk before the end of the week to avoid any chance of it becoming tied up in negotiations to pass a government spending package by Dec. 21.

The deal is a win for Democrats, who unanimously opposed the House plan to impose stricter work requirements on millions of participants in SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. SNAP helps nearly 40 million low-income Americans buy groceries and accounts for more than 75 percent of the farm bill’s total price tag.

It is also a victory for Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who held fast to the bipartisan approach they used in writing the Senate version of the bill. The House, driven by outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan's push to rein in SNAP as part of his broader welfare reform agenda, advanced its bill earlier this year with only GOP support after it was voted down on the first try.

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Trump has repeatedly said he wanted the farm bill to include stricter SNAP work rules, but lawmakers told reporters the president is expected to sign the final deal even though it lacks those provisions. Republicans and Democrats are betting Trump will choose to give farmers certainty by locking in farm and nutrition policy over the next five years. Producers have been struggling with low commodity prices, which have worsened as a result of retaliatory tariffs precipitated by Trump’s trade agenda.

The president faces the same dilemma that helped motivate House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas) to make concessions, including on SNAP. If the farm bill is not passed this month, lawmakers would have to restart the legislative process next year, giving a Democrat-controlled House the opportunity to include provisions that Republicans and major commodity groups consider unfavorable.

The release of the compromise bill follows months of politically charged negotiations between House and Senate Agriculture leaders that were marked by disagreements over SNAP, along with commodity, conservation and forestry programs. The previous farm bill expired Oct. 1 as top negotiators struggled to find common ground.

Ultimately, the deal that conference negotiators reached largely resembles existing agriculture and nutrition law.

Current SNAP policy would essentially be left in place, though the bill does make some administrative changes designed to reduce improper payments in the program.

House Republicans are likely to tout a handful of modest work-related provisions in SNAP, such as more funding for education and job-training initiatives.

While conservatives didn’t get what they wanted in the farm bill, the Agriculture Department is preparing to give them a win by releasing a rule expected to make it harder for states to waive existing work requirements for able-bodied adult SNAP recipients. In effect, it is a way to make work rules more stringent without congressional approval.

“Through regulation we'll be able to please those conservatives who expected more work requirements in the farm bill, as I did, as President Trump did," Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters after an Illinois Farm Bureau event in Chicago last week.

The House proposal on stricter SNAP work requirements and tightened eligibility standards together would have dropped about 1.5 million people from the program, according to CBO projections. Stronger work requirements would have led to a cut of some $9 billion in SNAP benefits over a decade, and the House bill called for using that money to fund a massive expansion of state-run SNAP employment and job-training efforts.

The final compromise doesn’t cut SNAP benefits or change eligibility criteria in any significant way.

The bill also largely maintains current limits on farm subsidies, though a House plan to expand the definition of a family operation to include first cousins, nieces and nephews — making them eligible for commodity subsidies — is included. These payments are capped at $125,000 per person each year, and double that for couples.

Farmers with an annual adjusted gross income above $900,000 a year would be ineligible for commodity payments, which are sent to producers growing soybeans, corn, cotton, peanuts and other row crops. That limit is the same threshold as in current law. A Senate proposal to lower the means test was scrapped.

A controversial proposal from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to curb how many farm managers can qualify for commodity subsidies also didn’t make the cut. Under current law, farms operated entirely by families can have an unlimited number of managers, as long as they are “actively engaged,” a standard enforced by USDA that critics argue is too lax and proponents contend is a bureaucratic headache.

Commodity subsidies, which can cost around $5 billion to $8 billion a year and are sent out when farmers’ average revenue or crop prices fall below certain levels, are expected to increase under the bill.

Dairy producers will get added protection, as well, because lawmakers decided to make it less expensive for them to enroll in support programs. House Agriculture ranking member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), who is expected to take over the panel next year, has said the changes will make it nearly impossible for smaller dairy operations to lose money.

Federal crop insurance, which subsidizes about 60 percent of farmers’ premiums and shields producers from weather-related disasters or profit losses during any one year, will continue. The program is not means-tested.

Agriculture lawmakers also had to resolve disagreements over conservation programs, which compensate farmers and ranchers to take environmentally sensitive land out of production, place it under easements or adopt practices that reduce pollution from runoff and improve soil quality.

The Conservation Stewardship Program would continue; the House version had proposed phasing it out over time in order to boost another initiative, known as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. Both programs pay farmers to implement practices that benefit the environment, though CSP has a longer-term focus and doesn’t put as much emphasis on livestock production. The final deal would slash CSP’s budget by $800 million per year, and plow the savings into EQIP and several other conservation programs.

Lawmakers left out dozens of controversial environmental provisions proposed by House Republicans, such as language to ease restrictions on pesticides and certain requirements under the Endangered Species Act.

The final bill includes a small boost in funding for trade-promotion efforts and would allocate $30 million a year for a new initiative to combat animal diseases, including funding for a vaccine bank. Also included was a provision, championed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to legalize hemp cultivation and remove it from the federal list of controlled substances. Stabenow secured grant funding for urban and indoor farming.

The compromise measure would restore USDA’s top rural development official to a Senate-confirmed position, reversing Perdue’s decision last year to make that post part of the Office of the Secretary.

The bill also includes energy and forestry titles. The latter became a late holdup in negotiations in the aftermath of the California wildfires.

The Trump administration had pushed lawmakers to adopt the House plan for forestry management, which would have eased federal oversight of certain forest-thinning efforts, like salvage logging. But Senate Democratic leadership was opposed to that approach because of environmental concerns. The final deal would waive environmental reviews for some activities, like the removal of insect- or disease-ridden trees, but it doesn’t go nearly as far as the House had proposed.