Farm Bill Update Pt 2

I'm Bob Larson. The House and Senate have both settled on their own versions of a new Farm Bill and are now trying to hammer out a compromise version in a conference committee, hoping to finish before the end of September deadline.

U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse says the House version is different in the area of food nutrition ...

NEWHOUSE ... "The SNAP program, we would like to see some real improvements to that to really help and encourage people to improve their lives, to help them, encourage them, provide training to join the labor force and make sure that we have the resources available to those that certainly need the food assistance program."

But, he says SNAP appears to be the biggest separation ...

NEWHOUSE ... "The Senate version, or my understanding of it is, does not have any work requirements or educational requirements in their bill and so that's going to be a point of contention that's going to take some debate and discussion on how we can find common ground there."

But, Newhouse says there's plenty of time to get this done, even with the August recess ...

NEWHOUSE ... "The conferees can get together between now and the end of September to give us the hard work necessary to find that compromise. So, it won't be easy. I am under no impression that it will be, but we do have the time available and they are intending to make good use of it."

Conference committee members were named last week and have until the end of September to put a finished product together before the current Farm Bill expires.