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Swordsmyth
12-12-2018, 08:25 PM
On Wednesday, the House passed an $867 billion farm bill to help those workers in the agricultural industry, sending the legislation to President Trump for a signature. The measure easily passed with a 369-47 vote. The legislation, which previously passed the Senate in an 87-13 vote on Tuesday, expands farm subsidies and according to The Hill, (https://thehill.com/homenews/house/420990-house-passes-867-billion-farm-bill-sending-it-to-trump?userid=47328)includes language legalizing hemp production.
The twice-a-decade legislation provides a safety net for farmers hit with unexpected weather or by tariffs, as well as to low-income Americans struggling to feed themselves and their families. According to the NYT, it is one of the most politically sensitive pieces of legislation Congress passes, balancing the demands of urban legislators hoping to maintain or increase funding for nutrition programs and rural lawmakers seeking to protect farmers, a divide brought into sharp relief this year as negotiations continued months after the previous bill’s Sept. 30 expiration date.
While the bill also provides funding for farmers markets and programs for organic farmers as well as authorizes funding for nutrition programs over the next five years, it did not include an earlier provision aimed at placing stronger work requirements for food stamps to the dismay of conservatives. Democrats, who will have a majority in the House starting in January, strongly opposed the provision — which received strong support from House Republicans and President Trump — arguing the change would be detrimental to the safety net relied upon by low-income earners.
Lawmakers passed the legislation following months of negotiations, with Congress allowing the current farm bill to lapse on Sept. 30 after struggling to come to a consensus over changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
But while stronger work requirements did not make it into the final text, the bill does make some changes to the SNAP program. Under the legislation, an interstate data system would be established to prevent multiple states from issuing SNAP benefits to the same individual simultaneously.
The bill only narrowly advanced past a rules vote earlier in the day after language was tucked into a procedural rule preventing for the rest of the year a floor vote on any war powers resolution limiting the U.S. involvement in Yemen. The move sparked backlash from a number of lawmakers. Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern blasted it, urging his colleagues to vote against the rule ahead of it coming to the floor.

"Mr. Speaker, I wanted to be able to vote for this rule today since I said I was going to support the underlying legislation, but my Republican friends screwed it up again," McGovern said during floor debate. "Because tucked inside this rule is language that turns off fast-track procedures for all Yemen resolutions through the end of this Congress. That's right — the Republican leadership has declared that the worst humanitarian conflict in the world, where the U.N. has just announced famine is taking place due to the war, is not worth the time and attention of the people's House."
Lawmakers included the provision as the Senate appeared poised Wednesday to approve a resolution using the War Powers Act to force a withdrawal of U.S. troops in or "affecting" Yemen within 30 days unless they are fighting Al Qaeda.


More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-12/house-passes-867-billion-farm-bill-which-rejects-curbs-food-stamps

spudea
12-12-2018, 08:43 PM
This bill legalized industrial hemp. Fantastic.

RonZeplin
12-12-2018, 08:56 PM
Thomas Massie is none too happy about this sleazy trick either. President Trump should veto it but he won't, he loves Saudi-Israel too much. He must hate Yemeni farmers as much as Bibi and MBS.


Thomas Massie: U.S. Involvement in Yemen Is ‘Not America First’ (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?529212-Thomas-Massie-U-S-Involvement-in-Yemen-Is-%91Not-America-First%92&p=6719693&viewfull=1#post6719693)

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that lame-duck House Speaker Paul Ryan endangers the Farm bill by including a rule that prohibits a vote on America’s involvement with Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.

One of House Republicans leadership’s final acts of this congressional term includes adding a rule on the Conference Report for the 2018 Farm bill which would block a potential War Powers resolution vote on America’s involvement in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. The House plans to vote on the Farm bill on Wednesday, leaving Massie and other America First foreign policy lawmakers limited time to fight against Ryan’s move to block their Yemen resolution.

The House Rules Committee released a rule on the conference report for the Farm bill, which includes a rule that the War Powers resolution does not apply to Yemen, which would spark a debate on whether the United States should remain engaged in the foreign war in the Middle East.
Massie chastised Speaker Paul Ryan, charging that the House Republican leadership should not jeopardize American farmers just to block a vote on a resolution condemning America’s involvement in Yemen.

“This is definitely not America First. We shouldn’t be spending our blood and treasure in the Middle East, and furthermore on another level, we shouldn’t be jeopardizing the passage of domestic policy and domestic spending with a foreign policy/ war issue,” Massie told Breitbart News. “In other words, if you’re putting America First, why would you jeopardize passage of the Farm bill by sneaking in the War in Yemen through the Farm bill?”

“It’s not America First; it’s not putting America’s farmers first,” Massie added. “I don’t’ think they would be excited find out that Paul Ryan used their bill to pull these shenanigans.”

Does your Congressman know what’s hidden in a procedural vote on the Farm Bill today? Does he or she care? To avoid a debate on whether the US should be involved in a war in Yemen, today our leadership will trick members into suspending the provisions of the War Powers Act. SAD! pic.twitter.com/PVziN9d2lP (https://t.co/PVziN9d2lP)
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 12, 2018 (https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1072797861182619648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)