Further cementing their profiles as out of touch politicians who put their party ahead of their hardworking constituents, Reps. Mike Bost and Rodney Davis voted yesterday for the 2018 Farm Bill in the House Agriculture Committee. Make no mistake—the 2018 Farm Bill is a cruel and reckless bill that puts Illinois farmers and the entire state’s economy at risk.
In an agricultural region where farmers are already struggling to get ahead, the 2018 Farm Bill will only exacerbate their problems. The twisted bill cuts crucial programs that support local food systems, fails to address the 52% decline in farm income, and fails to help farmers export their products—all at a time when the White House is engaged in a trade war that has put a bullseye on Illinois’ agricultural industry.
The bill also kicks more than a million off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a program that “offers nutrition assistance to millions of eligible, low-income individuals and families and provides economic benefits to communities.” Nearly two-thirds of SNAP recipients are children, elderly or disabled.
Although SNAP already contains strict work requirements, and over 80% of SNAP households are employed in the year before or after receiving SNAP, the 2018 Farm Bill imposes even tougher requirements and creates a massive new bureaucracy to implement and enforce them. And where did Davis and Bost find the funding for this new bureaucracy? From the most vulnerable among us, who will lose their critical SNAP benefits.
“Illinois farmers and families deserve better than this thoughtless, reckless party-line vote from Reps. Mike Bost and Rodney Davis,” said DCCC Spokesman Jacob Peters. “Illinois’ agricultural industry is under constant attack from Washington Republicans – including being put in the middle of a potentially devastating trade war – yet Mike Bost and Rodney Davis went along with this bill that does nothing for downstate Illinois, and actively hurts farmers, children, and the disabled.”