Illinois Congressman Bill Enyart said he was disappointed in the US House’s failure to pass the Farm Bill on Thursday. Enyart sits on the House Agriculture Committee, and he was one of only 24 Democrats to vote for the bill.
Enyart said he supported the legislation despite what he calls “draconian” cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps.
“It was not a perfect bill. There a lot of things in there I didn’t agree with,” Enyart said. “But the point of it was that it moved agriculture forward. It resolved some problems, and had the bill been passed, it would have gone to conference with the Senate’s agriculture bill and some of those problems could have gotten ironed out there. ”
The bill would have cut $2 billion annually from the food stamp program. Enyart expects the current farm bill will get another extension.
“I would certainly work for a two-year extension rather than a one-year extension because a one-year extension is just going to put us right into election time next year, and based on what’s happened today I don’t see any possibility of anything good happening a year from now,” Enyart said.
Enyart and Cheri Bustos were the only Illinois Democrats who voted for the bill, along with all the state’s Republicans.
Missouri’s six Republican Congress members voted for the bill, while both Democrats did not.
