SAN ANTONIO — House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., said here on Monday that he opposes cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program while Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., noted that a Republican proposal to cut SNAP by $300 million is floating around the chamber. 

Thompson and Craig spoke together at the American Farm Bureau Federation convention here.

Thompson said he will tell his fellow House Republicans at their retreat in Florida this week that he doesn’t want to pull back the Thrifty Food Plan rewrite that led to higher SNAP benefits because SNAP feeds vulnerable people, including children, seniors and people living with disabilities. But he said he is in favor of providing the states more incentives to address fraud.

---

---

Thompson also said he will lead a seminar on agriculture at the retreat. 

Thompson said he is working with the House Budget Committee so that when the committee sends instructions to the agriculture committee, the instructions “will allow us to work.”

---

---

Craig said she appreciates Thompson’s “optimism,” but described herself as “a pragmatist” who is aware there are documents “floating around identifying $300 billion” in SNAP cuts that she said could be used to extend tax cuts.

She told the farm audience she hopes Thompson “has luck” in Florida convincing his fellow Republicans not to cut SNAP because beneficiaries use SNAP “to buy the food you produce, and that the truckers drive to the store and the clerks put on the shelves.”

Craig said the farm bill needs to be bipartisan because “there are 30 to 40 Republicans who are never going to vote for a farm bill.”

Thompson said the committee needs an additional $70 billion to change the reference prices that trigger farm subsidy payments and pay for trade programs and agricultural research, and that he believes the budget authority should come from outside the farm bill.

Craig noted that when the committee considered the Republican-written farm bill last year, there was a dispute over whether the $30 billion in other programs should be cut to be used for farm programs. 

Thompson said he expects the committee’s first hearing will be held in mid February and the subject will be the rural economy. He said he will call Brooke Rollins, President Trump’s nominee for agriculture secretary, before the committee, but will “give her time to get her legs under her.”

Thompson said he has “no time frame for the farm bill,” but wants to proceed on it as early as possible this year, or by December Congress will need to approve another round of special farm aid as it did when the 2024 end-of-the-year funding bill included $10 billion to make up for market deficiencies.

Responding to a question from a Pennsylvania pork producer, Thompson said the farm bill needs to address California’s Proposition 12, which says pork sold in the state must come from animals raised under certain conditions. Thompson said pork producers should be able to sell anywhere in the country.

Thompson noted that when the Supreme Court approved California’s law it said Congress should deal with the issue. Craig said she is “a Democrat willing to engage on this issue,” but that the challenge is writing legislation that does not interfere with other state laws.

Both Thompson and Craig said they support bills to restore whole milk in school meals, but Thompson noted that legislation must go through the House Education & the Workforce Committee, which has jurisdiction over child nutrition programs. Thompson said the Agriculture Department decision to exclude whole milk on the grounds it contains too much fat was based on “bad science.”

The farm bill that Thompson proposed last year included restrictions on the agriculture secretary’s authority to use the Commodity Credit Corporation, USDA’s annual $30 billion line of credit at the Treasury.

Rollins said at her Senate confirmation hearing that if Trump’s imposition of tariffs leads other countries to cut back U.S. agricultural imports, USDA will again tap the CCC to make payments to make up for the losses.

In response to a question from The Hagstrom Report, Thompson said he believes that if USDA wants to establish programs that are “beyond the scope” of the CCC, USDA officials “need to bring that to the committee.”

He added, however, that he believes the trade mitigation payments the first Trump administration made were within the scope of the CCC. Thompson has criticized the Biden administration for using the CCC to establish the Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities. 

Thompson said he believes Trump had “learned to use tariffs as a tool,” and that the use of tariffs in the second Trump administration may not result in the loss of exports. He noted that when Trump threatened on Sunday to impose tariffs on Colombian products after Colombian President Gustavo Petro refused to accept military planes of Colombian deportees, Petro backed down.

But Craig said she is “less optimistic this is just bluster.” She said she had told Thompson when he wanted to restrict the use of the CCC that he should be sure about that. 

Asked about Trump’s decision to fire most departmental inspectors general, including Phyllis Fong at USDA, Thompson said the president has the right to “put his own people in place.” Thompson also noted that Trump is more prepared to be president in the second term and is “working at the speed of light because he knows he has only four years.”