The Senate Agriculture Committee failed to advance farm bill legislation during an Aug. 6 markup session. Democrats blocked the bill in a 10-11 party-line vote. While Republicans hold the majority on the committee, GOP Senators Mitch McConnell and Tommy Tubberville were not present.
Following the vote, committee chair John Boozman announced the meeting would go into an indefinite recess. This allows Boozman to call another vote at a later date, presumably after the absent senators return.
McConnel has been away from the Senate since suffering a fall at his home on June 14.
“I’m deeply disappointed by this outcome,” Boozman said in a statement shortly after the vote. “We have a responsibility to stand with America’s farmers, ranchers and rural communities. Everyone recognizes the serious challenges they continue to face, and blocking the farm bill only adds to the uncertainty and hardship.”
SNAP looms large
While members of both parties praised a series of bipartisan amendments passed early in the meeting, the two sides could not come to an agreement on nutrition funding. Of particular concern is a rule from last year’s budget reconciliation bill (aka the “big, beautiful bill”) that would shift some Supplemental Nutrition Funding to the states based on their error rates.
Error rates include instances where states either overpay or underpay SNAP recipients. Per terms of the reconciliation bill, states with error rates over 6% would pay a percentage of SNAP benefit costs based on their error level. However, another provision in the reconciliation bill gives states with the highest error rates more time to comply.
According to Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar and other Democrats, this unfairly punishes states with lower error rates.
States with error rates over 13.3% have until Oct. 1, 2029, to improve their number before incurring additional costs. The revised farm bill texted includes delayed implementation for the other states by one year until Oct. 1, 2028. Klobuchar contends all states should get an additional year to comply.
“Amid tariff-related rising grocery prices in states across the country where SNAP has been critical, this is only a one-year fix,” Klobuchar said in a statement following the hearing. “It still advantages high error rate states over states with mid-level error rates. A state with an error rate twice that of Minnesota will pay nothing in the second year, whereas states that have reduced their error rates will still be disadvantaged over high error rate states.”
Throughout the hearing, Boozman acknowledged that the one-year delay was not necessarily fair to some states. Still, he insisted it was the best he could do.
“I want to be clear a two-year delay does not have the support of the majority in Congress or of the White House,” Boozman said during his opening remarks. “The offer before you is the best and final offer. Should this legislation be defeated today, current law will remain in effect and states with poorly administered SNAP programs will begin to pay for a portion of benefit costs next year.”
According to USDA data, only nine states have error rates lower than 6%.