This Is What Bipartisanship Looks Like

In a vote of 86-11, the Senate passed its version of the Farm Bill with overwhelming bipartisan support yesterday afternoon. Carefully crafted with input from both sides of the aisle, the bill protects SNAP, keeping food on the table for our neighbors in need.

The Senate Farm Bill also provides much-needed investments in programs that expand trade and marketing opportunities for small and mid-scale growers, showing that when both parties work together, we can create a Farm Bill that helps both our struggling farms and our struggling families.

Bipartisanship also ruled the day as 68 Senators worked together to reject harmful amendments, including an attempt to put harsh time limits on SNAP for underemployed adults.

The Senate bill stands in stark contrast to the House bill that passed earlier this month and that threatens to take food off the tables of over 2 million individuals nationwide. Members from the Senate and the House will now have to meet in conference committee to negotiate a final version of the bill. We must keep the pressure on our Congressional members to ensure that the final conference report retains the Senate bill’s language.

We thank Washington’s Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and the rest of the 86 Senators whose votes for this Farm Bill affirms SNAP’s role as one of the most effective, poverty-fighting programs. We thank them for reaffirming that hunger is not a partisan issue and that our nation values working together to ensure that all of us have enough food to eat.

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