The measure would have cut funds and converted the program to a state block grant. Senate rejects food-stamp cuts

The decades-old farm and food stamps coalition held in the Senate on Wednesday, as 13 Republicans joined Democrats in blocking a tea party-led effort to cut nutrition funding almost in half and shift control back to the states.

The 65-33 roll call came just minutes after a much narrower 50-46 vote in which sugar beet and cane growers beat back a bipartisan effort to phase out the farm bill’s sugar support program, which has long been criticized for shifting costs on to American consumers.


Here, too, Republican votes for the tabling motion were pivotal. Fifteen GOP senators — including Western state conservatives — joined in support of the growers and Agriculture Committee leadership.

The food stamp vote was significant because the amendment, offered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), mirrors a proposal by House Republicans that would also convert the program to a state block grant and cut funding — albeit not as much as the tea party conservative proposed.

Paul was proposing a $37 billion, or 45 percent cut, from the projected funds for next year. The House GOP budget plan would save about half as much over roughly the same period.

“It’s out of control. It’s doubled in the last 10 years,” Paul said. “We do not have an endless supply of money.”

But Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) bristled at his suggestions that nothing was being done to address abuses in the program. She also said Paul’s proposed cuts were “outrageous.”

“Waste, fraud and abuse we tackle,” Stabenow said, listing reforms in the underlying bill to improve accountability. “But for somebody in this great country who’s paid taxes all their lives and worked all their lives and now needs help to put food on the table … they need to know that we’re going to be able to provide a little bit of temporary help.”

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a former White House budget director under President George W. Bush who is often mentioned as a possible running mate for Mitt Romney, voted in opposition. But Stabenow was helped most by a mix of conservative Southern and Midwest Republicans on her committee, led by Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, the Republican floor manager for the bill,

As the debate proceeds, this same GOP farm bloc will be pivotal if the bill is to survive the onslaught of amendments that now face it. Roberts has been central to talks now with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on trying to pare back the number of relevant and non-germane amendments.

The partisan skirmishing resumed immediately after the two roll calls, and Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said there was considerable frustration voices by conservatives at a party luncheon which followed.

Kyl denied any concerted strategy by the GOP leadership to hold up the bill — thereby making it easier for House Republicans to put off dealing with the issue before the elections. Instead, he faulted Reid for being too heavy-handed in restricting the process.

“A lot of us voted for cloture on the assumption we were going to get amendments,” Kyl said. “That’s not happening.”

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) echoed the same point in an earlier exchange with Reid on the floor. The Democratic leader had proposed that the Senate move on to four more votes Wednesday, but Coburn objected, saying that Reid’s offer was too much of a piecemeal approach in which he decided who got votes and who did not.

One of the four votes would have been on a Coburn amendment, in fact: a proposal to cut about $28 billion over 10 years from conservation programs. “This is the first time I’ve seen this list and this is a very low priority amendment for me,” Coburn said.

The same argument is especially relevant to the sugar debate, for example. The amendment voted down, which would have phased out the program entirely, was the most severe option. Encouraged by the vote — in which 15 Democrats voted against the sugar lobby — conservatives want Reid now to give them a chance to offer alternatives that would make incremental changes instead.

“If we can’t pass full repeal,” said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), “we have every right, responsibility to improve the program.”

For her part, Stabenow has refused to entertain any doubts about the farm bill’s future, despite the procedural setbacks. And while the Senate recessed Wednesday night without yet reaching agreement, the situation appeared less tense and more hopeful than 24 hours before.

“Every step of the way, people have said we couldn’t get this done,” Stabenow told reporters. “I would suggest that people not underestimate the number of folks in the Senate who care about these issues, who want deficit reduction, who want reform, who want an agricultural policy that works for our country. And we’re just going to keep on working.”

She conveyed the same optimism about healing the breach too between herself and Southern rice and peanuts growers, who are upset with elements of the Senate bill.

“I am very confident that by the end of this process that we will come to the middle on this,” Stabenow said. “I appreciate their concerns and know that crop insurance at this point in time is not effective for them and we have to address other issues and we’re continuing to do that. Whether that’s done in the Senate, whether that’s done in the [House-Senate] conference committee, I’m confident that we will be coming together.”