Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., said Tuesday they are determined to include more money for basic farm subsidies and crop insurance in the reconciliation bill but are not yet certain how to handle a cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Boozman, Thompson and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee, spoke in separate sessions to the North American Agricultural Journalists. Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., ranking member on House Agriculture, canceled a scheduled appearance because she was announcing her candidacy for the senate to succeed retiring Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn.

Boozman said he hopes the reconciliation bill can update “risk management” programs for farmers, which he later confirmed means the reference prices that trigger the agriculture risk coverage (ARC) and price loss coverage (PLC) programs and crop insurance.

“Right now, unless you are in the cattle business, it is going to cost you more to grow that crop than what you are going to receive,” Boozman said. Bankers, he noted, told Congress that they could not finance farmers this year if farmers did not get the $10 billion that was in the funding bill that passed at the end of 2024.

Boozman noted that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program contains a provision to account for inflation but farm programs do not. Boozman maintained that addressing basic farm programs and SNAP in the reconciliation bill will make it easier to pass a farm bill that deals with other programs, but some Democrats have said the opposite.

Boozman said he agrees with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. that diets need to improve to avoid diabetes but he also said that Kennedy, who last week said sugar is “poison,” needs to “be careful about going too far. Some of the things he is talking about don’t fall within his jurisdiction.”

Boozman added that saying sugar “is poison is pretty extreme” and that statements about food need to be based on “sound science and common sense.”

On Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ plan to ask the Agriculture Department for a waiver to stop SNAP participants from buying sweetened beverages with their benefits, Boozman said that issue has come up before in farm bill debates but now “has a lot more momentum.” There are “concerns” about how a waiver would be administered, he said.

Boozman said there will be no cuts to current SNAP benefit levels in the reconciliation bill.

The Senate reconciliation bill instructions call for only a $1 billion cut to programs under the Senate Agriculture Committee’s jurisdiction, but the House instructions are for $230 billion.

Thompson said he also favors including increases for ARC, PLC and crop insurance in the reconciliation bill and that he would be “more comfortable” with a lower cut than $230 billion, which is expected to come at least mostly from SNAP.

Thompson also said he is not “looking to cut benefits” in the SNAP program, but he appeared more open to proposals to require the states to pay part of the SNAP benefit. Thompson noted that “states are now trying to define and tweak SNAP when they don’t pay for them.”

Thompson said he believes the House Agriculture Committee will mark up its portion of the reconciliation bill next week.

Thompson pointed out that he wants to make SNAP benefits available to former prisoners and to eliminate the so-called “poverty cliff” that means people who get a small increase in pay can lose their “safety net.”

Thompson called Kennedy’s statement that sugar is poison “a personal opinion.” When a reporter pointed out that Kennedy is the nation’s top health official, Thompson said, “So what?” He added he would “love to have a day with him to explain how healthy our commodities are.”

Thompson praised the Trump administration and Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins in particular for being open to feedback.

Klobuchar said she is “very disturbed” by the actions the Trump administration is taking on the rural economy. With tariffs, Klobuchar said, “small farmers are roadkill.”

Klobuchar said her Republican colleagues are also worried, but the question is whether they will “stand up and vote” against Trump policies.

There is a lot of support for sustainable aviation fuel, now called synthetic aviation fuel, which could be given certainty through the 45Z guidance process, Klobuchar said.

Republicans need to “be careful” about raising reference prices that trigger farm subsidies in reconciliation, Klobuchar said.

If the Senate goes “too deep” into SNAP cuts, it will be hard to pass a farm bill, she said.