Senator Carper: House Farm Bill ‘Unacceptable’

WASHINGTON – Today, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) issued the following statement on the House of Representatives’ vote on a pared-down Republican farm bill:

“Today the House majority passed, along party lines, an unacceptable farm bill. Their bill strips away funding for critical food assistance programs that help prevent hunger among more than 45 million Americans – ‘the least of these’ in our neediest communities. In the Senate, we passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan farm bill that helps farmers and families in Delaware and across the country, while achieving significant deficit reduction. But the House seems determined to ignore this bipartisan effort and instead push through a dramatically scaled-back, ideological farm bill that fails to protect the neediest and threatens the passage of comprehensive reforms that help reduce our deficit. It’s time for the House to stop playing politics with our food and farm policy. As this bill goes to conference, I call on members of both parties and both chambers to work in good faith – as we’ve done for almost a half-century on agricultural issues – to put in place a comprehensive farm bill that includes the vital agricultural and nutrition reforms we desperately need.”