Farm bill deal close as negotiators await cost estimates

Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts said Wednesday that farm bill negotiators were on the cusp of a deal to resolve outstanding issues but were awaiting final cost estimates before a formal announcement could be made. “We have to put the bill together and then we have to get the scores,” Roberts told reporters, referring to a 10-year cost estimate conducted by the Congressional Budget Office. Top farm bill negotiators in the House and Senate have been at loggerheads for months over several thorny issues in the sweeping agriculture and nutrition bill, including over commodity policy and food stamps as well as conservation initiatives and topline spending numbers. Later on Wednesday, Roberts told reporters it would be premature to describe the deal as final, because “there’s still some things out there that people have to agree on.” We’re not at a place where I can say that there’s full agreement," he added. Lawmakers have kept a tight lid on how they thread the needle on the bill's nutrition title — the highest-profile policy fight between the two chambers during farm bill negotiations. But the final deal is not expected to include stricter work requirements for millions of recipients of food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That controversial proposal was included in the House farm bill but has long been considered politically unworkable in the Senate. Farm bill insiders said negotiators likely agreed to tinker around the edges of SNAP policy, avoiding any major cuts to the $70-billion-per-year program, which helps more than 40 million Americans buy groceries each month...MORE