By Crystal D. Swann
May 19, 2008

The House of Representatives adopted the farm bill conference report May 14 by enough votes to override a Presidential veto, 318-106. The Senate is expected to adopt the report a veto overriding margin also. H.R. 2419 – H Report 110-627, contains several provisions and funding increases for popular city programs. The bill’s new funding includes $10.3 billion for nutrition programs, $1.26 billion for the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), $1 billion for the Snack Program, $33 million mandatory over five years for the Farmers’ Market Promotion Program and much more.

Additionally, the Food Stamp Program was renamed the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits (SNAP).” Supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits are now increased, indexed to inflation, and certain military payments, retirement accounts, and education accounts are excluded from income for the purposes of determining SNAP eligibility. A $20 million pilot program has been added to evaluate health and nutrition promotion in SNAP with the purpose of reducing overweight, obesity and associated: “co-morbidities” among program recipients.

The farm bill rewrite would cost about $289 billion over five years and includes reauthorization of crop subsidies, conservation programs, and a special $3.8 billion trust fund for farmers who lose crops to flood fire or drought. The Senate is expected to pass the bill on May 15; the President is expected the veto it and then the House and Senate will have to vote on an override. In anticipation, the House passed another one-week extension of the current farm bill to provide time to complete this process.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors policy passed at last year’s annual meeting supports:

• The promotion of healthy diets for all residents, including strengthening incentives and infrastructure to encourage more fruit/vegetable production, organic farming, better access to fresh foods and investment in programs promoting healthy food, expansion of programs that help communities invest in retail markets, food-based businesses and increasing access to farmers markets, farm-to-cafeteria programs that bring the freshest, locally grown food into school lunch programs;

• Increasing the minimum food stamp benefits, revising asset limits, removing the residency cap for legal non-citizens, simplifying the application and renewal process of the food stamp program;

• Strengthening The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and fully funding the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP); and

• Strengthening and expanding agriculture conservation programs.

To view the adopted USCM agricultural reform policy in its entirety go to the website www.usmayors.org.