Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Today, Rep. French Hill (AR-02) issued the following statement after supporting H.R. 2, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act, to help Arkansas farm families prosper:

“Agriculture is Arkansas’s number one economic industry, and I was proud to support the passage of the farm bill to give security and assistance to Arkansas’s and our nation’s farmers.

“I was pleased that this bill included much-needed reforms including adding a work or education requirement to the food stamp program for able-bodied adults. Work - whether participating in a qualified volunteer program, training program, or a job – bears the fruits of dignity, pride, and responsibility. Our economy is growing more rapidly and there are more work and training opportunities. Providing this incentive will offer a chance for upward mobility from welfare to work, dependence to independence, and ultimately poverty to prosperity. I commend Chairman Conaway of the House Agriculture Committee for his leadership and his colleagues on their hard work on this bill, and for taking a great first step in ensuring our vital SNAP program is more accountable and effective for those that need it most.”

Background:

The Agriculture and Nutrition Act, H.R. 2, reauthorizes and strengthens the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) options through 2023.

This bill does the following:

• Improves the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and strengthens and streamlines work requirements for able bodied adults to increase opportunities for SNAP recipients, including participation is a fully funded guaranteed Employment and Training slots.
• Provides a strengthened safety net for farmers and ranchers, authorizing and restoring funding for vital tools for trade promotion and market development, and maintains long-standing legal authority for the secretary to aid farmers and ranchers affected by unfair foreign trading practices.
• Prioritizes working-land conservation by retaining and folding the best features of the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) into the nation’s flagship incentive-based program for voluntary conservation -- the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
• Protects crop insurance as well as streamlining and reducing regulatory burdens.
• Authorizes substantial annual appropriations to rural broadband require USDA to establish forward- looking broadband standards. It would also strengthen the suite of rural development initiatives to promote jobs and economic activity in rural America.

Establishes a new National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program designed to protect the health of the nation’s livestock sector.