This is one of only a few bills that Congress must pass this year.

House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson’s long awaited farm bill boosts farm safety-net programs significantly, but crosses two red lines of Democratic leaders. This sets up a showdown between the Senate and House over the must pass legislation.

Thompson’s (R-Pa. ) massive $1.5 trillion package of legislation, unveiled on Friday, will still attract some Democratic votes next week when the House Agriculture Committee marks up its bill.

The draft legislation is the latest salvo of a heated debate that has become increasingly partisan over food and agricultural policy, a topic which has historically been a bridge between the two political parties. Democrats on the panel were under pressure from their party leaders not to support Thompson’s House Farm Bill and instead to back a competing proposal put forth by Senate Agriculture chair Debbie Stabenow, a member in the Democratic leadership.

This could be politically risky at home. Republicans want to get rid of at least 12 Democrats who represent rural districts with a heavy agriculture component on the House Agriculture Committee. In these competitive races, the farm bill – or its absence – is likely to become a major topic of discussion. The farm bill encompasses many rural funding programs, farm safety nets and nutrition programs which are the cornerstones of the U.S. agriculture and food sector as well as rural communities. It’s also one of only a few bills that Congress must pass this year.

Two people who attended the closed-door session and were allowed to speak anonymously about the conversations said that a group of frontline Democrats on the Agriculture Committee met to “discuss” policy options for the farm bill. Senior Democrats had pressed the Democrats to oppose the House Bill in the previous day’s meeting.

The farm bill has already been postponed once by lawmakers. They extended the authorizations in place last year, after both parties were unable to agree on a new package. This extension expires just weeks before 2024’s election.

Democrats and Republicans have yet to resolve major policy differences, notably over how to divide a limited funding amount.

Thompson’s bill, in addition to doubling the funding for important trade promotion programs to help farmers find new markets to sell their goods abroad, also increases funding for specialty crop programs. The bill also provides more funding for special crop programs and expands access for rural small businesses to energy-saving programs. It also improves the tracking of farmland purchased by entities from China or other hostile countries.

Two major provisions in the House bill have also been met with fierce opposition by senior Democrats. The first would limit updates to the Thrifty Food Plan which is used as the basis of calculating Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, the nation’s biggest anti-hunger program. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this could prevent a future Democratic Administration from increasing SNAP by as little 23 cents a day in 2027 or 2032. This could also stop a future GOP President from reversing the major expansion of SNAP by Joe Biden. The policy would allow food benefits to increase in line with inflation and nutrition programs to make up over 80 percent of total farm bill expenditures.

The House Farm Bill would expand access to SNAP, as well as other anti-hunger initiatives like strained foodbanks and nutrition improvements for senior citizens. The legislation removes the lifetime ban that prevents low-income Americans who have a prior felony drug conviction, from receiving SNAP.

Not all House Democrats see the move as a poison pill. Rep. Sanford Bishop is the dean of Georgia’s delegation and a member of the House Agriculture Committee. He said that he will have to “weigh options” with the rest the bill after Thompson releases the full text.

Bishop told the children to “balance the baby”.

Several of Bishop’s agriculture-related legislation pieces are included in the House Farm Bill, as well as priorities from House Democrats such Don Davis (N.C.), Angie Craig, (Minn.), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, (Wash.), Gabe Vasquez, (N.M.), Eric Sorensen, (Ill.), Yadira, Caraveo, (Colo.), Sharice, Davids, (Kan.), and Nikki Budzin

One provision that many Democrats are against is the removal of strict climate-smart criteria for the use and allocation of approximately $13 billion worth in conservation funds from the Inflation Reduction Act. These dollars will be incorporated into future farm bills. This is a historic move in terms of farm conservation funding. However, Democrats want to maintain the climate-related restrictions on the funding. Republicans want more farmers to be able to take advantage of these programs and integrate conservation techniques into their farming operations.

In a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, senior Democrats encouraged members of the House to oppose the House Farm Bill due to these provisions. Democratic leaders also believe they can block any Farm Bill they do not support on the House Floor, due to Republicans’ razor thin majority.

Stabenow, along with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, urged the members to rally behind Stabenow’s recently released Farm Bill framework and to oppose the House’s bill at the next panel vote.

Jeffries stated in a recent interview that the House Farm Bill “was put forth by extreme MAGA Republicans, and is dead on its arrival as far as receiving a substantial amount Democratic support.” Thompson dismissed this remark.

Thompson stated in an interview that the proposal was “a robust farm-bill proposal” which brought farm back to the farm bill.