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Roberts promises Senate farm bill action ‘in early May’

Senate Ag Committee chair Pat Roberts says he expects committee markup of the Senate farm bill to take place in early May—and he says it could reach the Senate floor soon after that.

“I will say that, on both sides, Senator Schumer and Senator McConnell have indicated that as soon as we get that done, we will have floor time,” Roberts said. “The last time we did it in two days. I hope that we can replicate that.”

Questioned by farm broadcasters in Washington this week, Roberts wouldn’t say whether the Senate farm bill would tackle SNAP reform. But he said he’s striving for a bipartisan bill.

“The Senate is entirely focused on a bill that will be bipartisan,” he said.

Nebraska Senator and ag committee member Deb Fischer says she doesn’t foresee any drastic changes to the food stamp program in the Senate farm bill.

“We are not looking at a lot of changes, or a lot of reforms, happing in the nutrition program here in the Senate,” Fischer says.

The inclusion of work and training requirements for SNAP recipients in the House Ag Committee’s farm bill caused Democrats to oppose the bill. The bill passed on a strictly partisan 26-20 vote.