This week, the Senate overwhelmingly passed their version of the farm bill in a bipartisan 86-11 vote, which will set up a House-Senate conference to reconcile the two chambers’ bills. Both the House and Senate will be out of session next week for the July 4th district work period.
As FMI previously reported, the bill included important fee prohibition language while reauthorizing FINI and creating a new retailer-driven incentive program. The Senate only voted on a few amendments, including Senator Kennedy’s sweeping amendment that would have required grocery store employees to perform mandatory photo ID checks on every SNAP transaction, limited SNAP to items the USDA Secretary deemed “essential” as well as make significant changes to work and eligibility requirements. FMI strongly opposed the amendment, which was defeated.
Courtesy of FMI