The two top Republicans on the Senate and House Agriculture Committees are calling on the Biden administration to scale back spending on food stamps, while praising its expansion of farm aid.
Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) has proposed an additional $2 billion aid package for dairy farmers and said he would work with USDA to ensure producers of all commodities nationwide have the relief and tools to recover from the pandemic,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
However, Thompson and his counterpart of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), criticized the USDA’s decision under Biden to expand Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits by 25% permanently above pre-pandemic levels. Both politicians said they see “an urgent need for scrutiny, particularly on the heels of significant nutrition-related pandemic spending that has continued without rigorous oversight.”
A Republican House aide told the Journal that “no one expected something that was bank-breaking as opposed to a nominal adjustment.”
