The Washington Post reports the House Agriculture Committee unveiled its approach for a long-term farm and food bill that would reduce spending by $3.5 billion a year.

“The legislative draft envisions reducing current food stamp spending projections by $1.6 billion a year, four times the amount of cuts incorporated in the five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill passed by the Senate last month.”

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, looks “to be the most contentious issue when the Agriculture Committee begins voting on the bill Wednesday and when the full House begins debating it in the future.”

The Agriculture Committee said its bill would “strengthen the program’s integrity while better targeting assistance to those in need of it.”

Now the two chambers must work to reach a compromise before September 30, the date our current farm bill expires.

This article posted July 10, 2012.