This is NOT the U.S. Senate Bill that I
posted about last week, but we still need to watch
all the Federal Food Stamp bills for “sex offender” amendments since Senator
Vitter set the bad example and if any such prohibition is added I will post
about it so you can contact your Federal
representatives.
Mary
I-
By Jonathan Weisman and Ron Nixon July 11, 2013
The
216-to-208 vote saved House Republican leaders from an embarrassing reprisal of
the unexpected defeat of a broader version of the bill in June, but the future
of agriculture policy remains uncertain. The food stamp program, formally
called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, was 80 percent of the
original bill’s cost, and it remains the centerpiece of the Senate’s bipartisan
farm bill.
Even in a
chamber used to acrimony, Thursday’s debate in the House was particularly
brutal. Democrats repeatedly called for roll-call votes on parliamentary
procedures and motions to adjourn, delaying the final vote by hours and
charging Republicans over and over again with callousness and cruelty.
Republicans
shouted protests, trying to silence the most strident Democrats, and were
repeatedly forced to vote to uphold their own parliamentary rulings.
Representative
Frank D. Lucas, Republican of Oklahoma, the chairman of the House Agriculture
Committee, said he would try to draft a separate food stamp bill “as soon as I
can achieve a consensus.” But conservatives remain determined to extract deep
cuts to the program — cuts that members of both parties in the House and Senate
have said they cannot support.
House and
Senate negotiators could produce a compromise measure with the robust food
stamp program the Senate wants, but such a bill would almost certainly have to
pass the House with significant Republican defections.
Asked
before the vote Thursday if he would allow a compromise bill to come to a final
vote in the House, Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio shrugged and said: “If ands and buts
were candy and nuts, every day would be Christmas. You’ve heard that before. My
goal right now is to get the farm bill passed. We’ll get to those other issues
later.”
By
splitting farm policy from food stamps, the House effectively ended the
decades-old political marriage between urban interests concerned about nutrition
and rural areas who depend on farm subsidies.
“We
wanted separation, and we got it,” said Representative Marlin Stutzman,
Republican of Indiana, one of the bill’s chief authors. “You’ve got to take
these wins when you can get them.”
Democrats
denounced the bill as a naked attempt to make draconian cuts in the food stamp
program.
“A vote
for this bill is a vote to end nutrition in America ,”
said Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut .