The Senate passed a new farm bill on Thursday, leaving the rest of the fight over the new restrictions on food stamps to the House Republicans.
The bill was passed with 86-11 vote before the senator left for the week-long July Fourth recess.
Republican Senators Richard Burr, Bob Corker, Tom Cotton, Jeff Flake, Dean Heller, James Inhofe, Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Mike Lee, Rand Paul and Pat Toomey voted against the bill.
CNN reported that the $428-billion farm bill authorizes agriculture assistance and nutrition programs for the next five years. The current farm bill expires on Sept. 30.
“Today marks an important day for farm country. We are one step closer to providing farmers and ranchers a Farm Bill with the certainty and predictability they deserve,” said Republican Senator Pat Roberts, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, who is the top Democrat on the panel, said that the Senate legislation “proves that bipartisanship is a tried and true approach to getting things done.”
The House and Senate will need to merge their respective bills before the final legislation can be sent to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature.
The House legislation, which almost didn’t pass last week, enforces new work requirements on the food stamps program, as well as new rules on who can qualify for the federal assistance.
Trump praised the work requirements as key to a final farm bill.
“Farm Bill just passed in the House. So happy to see work requirements included. Big win for the farmers!” Trump said in a tweet shortly after the House bill passed.
Republican senators unsuccessfully attempted to add new work requirements to the Senate legislation.
“A major portion of the bill is, of course, the food stamps program. The food stamps program provides important support to people who are in need. But at the same time we should not be trapping people in dependency,” Cruz said during a Senate floor speech.
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