The Culture War Comes to the Farm Bill

In the latest effort to enact social policy through amendments to must-pass bills, House conservatives are proposing dozens of amendments to the 2024 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that target their own social priorities.Also known as the Farm Bill, the Agriculture Appropriations Bill is renewed every five years and addresses everything from crop insurance to conservation to nutrition programs, such as food stamps and school lunches.This year, members of the House Freedom Caucus and some of their conservative allies have introduced a litany of amendments addressing their own conservative cultural priorities — an echo of the group’s tactics on the National Defense Authorization Act.These amendments range from banning Farm Bill funding from being used to implement or enforce standards on what counts as organic food to blocking funding being used for researching “cell-cultured meat.”Many of the proposed amendments, though, are more tangentially related to agriculture. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s amendment, for example, would ban funds from going to “woke courses, books, and study guides.”In Ms. Boebert’s estimation, this includes books advocating for “empathy,” “inclusion,” “mindfulness,” and “understanding and supporting LGBTQ+ employees,” as well as materials addressing “communicating about culturally sensitive issues.”An amendment proposed by Congressman Ronny Jackson would ban the Food and Drug Administration commissioner from purchasing electric vehicles.Another amendment, offered by Congressman Lance Gooden, would ban the use of funds to enforce two executive orders that are aimed at combating discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation.Democrats have also offered an amendment that would strike language in the current House version of the bill restricting the dispensation of a common abortion drug, mifepristone, to hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices.Congressman Andy Harris, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, heads the subcommittee that oversaw the writing of the Farm Bill this year.Aside from their many culturally oriented amendments, Republicans have also introduced amendments more pertinent to the main focus of the Farm Bill — nutrition and agriculture.Congressmen Byron Donalds and Josh Brecheen have introduced an amendment to expand work requirements for nutritional assistance, or “food stamps,” for those aged 18 to 64 and those with dependents over 6 years old. The measure also would require those who receive benefits to turn in furnished receipts for their food purchases upon request.Another amendment offered by Mr. Brecheen would cut funding for the Rural Economic Development Loans Program, which provides low-interest loans for rural projects, by $31 million, bringing the program’s budget down to 2019 levels. A competing amendment offered by Congressman Scott Perry would cut rural development funding by $75 million.Mr. Perry also offered an amendment that would cut more than $25 million in funding for the Department of Agriculture’s rural jobs training program, which aims to help those in rural areas gain skills to start businesses. The cut amounts to half of the program’s budget.Many of the amendments face long odds in the Senate, not only because of the upper chamber’s Democratic majority but because Senate Republicans have often used the Farm Bill to provide benefits to rural voters in their states.During the debt ceiling negotiations, Senators Thune and Ernst, among others, were careful not to promise cuts to farm bill programs that were targeted at helping rural voters.Mr. Thune, in a conversation with Politico, said that the House Republican leadership is under “a lot of pressure to cut, cut, cut in different areas,” even though “there are also a lot of members from agricultural states who need a farm bill.”“If you look at our map in 2024, we got a lot of rural state Republicans who are up,” Mr. Thune added.

The Culture War Comes to the Farm Bill

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