Late on Wednesday night, the Senate Agriculture Committee released its proposal for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act which would have a net savings of $144 billion for the Committee’s jurisdiction. This differs from the House proposal which would save an estimated $238 billion; the gap in cost savings is one of the numerous deviations Senate Committees are proposing that may prove challenging in brokering a final agreement between the House and Senate. Reconciliation bills from other Committees continue to be released and the Senate has a stated goal of finalizing before July 4, but there are several procedural hurdles that still need to be cleared before then.
The Senate bill would also differ from the House by removing the 5 percent floor for state contributions and caps cost-share at 15% based on state’s error rates rather than the House plan which has a 25% cap. For either bill, this would be the first time SNAP benefit costs have been delegated to states and would have a very large impact on state budgets. Additionally, by making steep cuts to mandatory nutrition programs and addressing certain pressing commodity payment and reference price issues, both usually considered in the Farm Bill, this package, like the House version, puts at risk the delicate balance of Republican and Democratic priorities required to build momentum for a Farm Bill every five years. The current Farm Bill is in its second one-year extension.
Finally, the Senate bill would follow the House proposal to end funding for SNAP Education but provides $1.1 billion in total funding for Agricultural Research Facilities and restores funding for “orphan” programs that were left unfunded in the Farm Bill extension.
See the Lewis-Burke report for more information.