Carbondale Reporter

Touch of Nature Environmental Center recently issued the following announcement.

While U.S. Rep. Mike Bost is at home during the Fourth of July holiday, he stopped by The Southern Illinoisan to talk about recent legislation that passed through the U.S. House of Representatives.

One piece of legislation Bost talked about was the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, commonly known as the farm bill, which is valid through fiscal year 2023.

It modifies U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that address commodity support, conservation, trade and international food aid, nutrition assistance, farm credit, rural development, research and extension activities, forestry, horticulture and crop insurance.

“The farm bill, I believe, was a good bill. Now remember if you want to say it was a good bill, the ag side was wonderful. Understand the Senate is going to pass the ag side, then they almost going to take the old farm bill and just extend it,” Bost said.

Bost said one of the issues is his BALE Act, which gives new farmers an opportunity to get a secured bank loans. Bost had hoped to get $2.25 million in funding to secure the loans, up from the previous farm bill’s $1.5 million. They settled on $1.75 million.

“We’ve got the safety net, which is crop insurance which is vitally important,” Bost said.

The Conservation Reserve Program, commonly known as set aside, is maintained and strengthened, according to the House agriculture committee.

Bost said there was a change in the dollar amount that is paid under set aside. The reason is the level of set aside had been raised to the point that young farmers had to compete against the government on crop production, which is not what the intent was. So, the bill allows for more acreage to be set aside in wiser places.

“Let’s say, for instance, we shouldn’t have to take prime farm ground out of a lot of places in central Illinois and then pay at the level they were wanting to pay. However, where we should be able to take and get the set aside is along the banks of the Kaskasia River so that the crops are not planted to the edge,” Bost said.

He added that planting to the edge caused the topsoil run off, then the channels have to be dredged to keep them open.

Bost said the controversy seemed to be with the nutrition part of the bill.

“I don’t know why it was controversial, except for the fact that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle said that under no circumstances were they voting for any ag bill that had a work requirement on the SNAP side,” Bost said.

What was the work requirement? Bost said the bill requires recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, from age 18 to 59 to seek employment for 20 hours per week if they were not pregnant, have no children younger than 6 years old, and are not physically or mentally disabled. Those who cannot find work must show they are looking for employment of at least 20 hours per week.

If a job is available and you don’t have the training for that job, training would be provided to give the person the opportunity to work.

“We’re at the first time in our history that we have more jobs available than people to fill them. Why is that wrong to say that’s a requirement?” Bost said. “I am all for helping people that are in need. But it was never supposed to be a system that is locked on for two or three or four generations. This actually encourages work in a sensible manner.”

Bost said the work requirement does not affect seniors. Individuals and families receive food stamps if they are at 125 percent of the poverty level. For seniors, it goes to 235 percent.

One provision of the bill gives states the ability to apply for a waiver in counties with high unemployment and no jobs, like East St. Louis and Alexander County in Bost’s district. Bost said both of those areas would qualify for a waiver.

“We’ve got to become sensible in encouraging people to go back to work. The current system isn’t working. It continues to grow more and more people on the programs that don’t get off,” Bost said.

Based on USDA data, current SNAP enrollment is at 40 million and unemployment is 3.8 percent, according to an email from Bost’s office. The last time unemployment was 3.8 percent was in 2000. SNAP enrollment then was 17 million. SNAP enrollment is down from its all-time peak of 48 million in 2013.

Original source can be found here.