Members of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee today quizzed Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack about his views on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children, his views on pay for H-2A workers and his use of the Commodity Credit Corporation.

Vilsack was questioned at a hearing on President Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget request for USDA.

House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., asked Vilsack why USDA has rejected all requests from state and city governments to launch SNAP pilot projects that would forbid the use of that program to buy sweetened beverages and certain other foods.

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Asked whether he has the authority to undertake such pilots, Vilsack said he has the authority, but that the proposals have not included evaluations.

Harris also said that since Vilsack became secretary, obesity rates have risen 9%. When he asked Vilsack whether the SNAP program to educate beneficiaries on healthy eating is effective in reducing obesity, Vilsack hesitated.

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Harris pointed out that the Summer EBT program, which will provide low-income families with $120 to buy food over the summer, follows the SNAP rules except on tribal reservations where families must buy food under the WIC rules, which have higher nutrition standards. He suggested that the WIC model should be used nationwide, but Vilsack said that would be difficult for the national population.

Vilsack also said there would be a “fairness” issue, apparently a reference to the fact that farmers get payments and can spend the money any way they want.

Vilsack noted that obesity is a problem with the middle class and rich people, and asked Harris if he believes that farmers who get emergency payments and are obese should have their food purchases restricted.

Harris said he would be more supportive of Summer EBT if there were nutrition requirements as there are in school meals.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, suggested that Vilsack was proposing establishing an office of food police for anyone who gets a federal subsidy and is obese.

At the end of the hearing, Harris said he hopes that there will be some SNAP demonstration projects coming forward.

Harris also questioned the administration’s request for an increase of about $7 billion for the WIC program. Harris said that whenever Republicans want to discuss the WIC budget, they are accused of starving pregnant women and children.

Harris noted that the administration says it is asking for more money for WIC because it anticipates an increase in participation and an increase in food prices. He pointed out that the increase in participation in WIC has been only about 1% and that the White House says food inflation is going down.

Vilsack said that the WIC budget request also includes money to replenish other nutrition programs whose budgets were raided to continue WIC benefits while there was so much uncertainty over funding, because Congress had not finished the fiscal year 2024 USDA appropriations bill.

DeLauro said she is intrigued by budget proposals to establish WIC contingency funds to avoid such funding shortfalls in the future. She also asked Vilsack for his views on the single source contracts that states make with infant formula suppliers for the WIC program.

Questions have been raised about the single source contracts leading to concentration in the infant formula industry and the shortages that occurred during the pandemic. But Vilsack pointed out that the single source contracts have saved a lot of money in the WIC program. Vilsack said additional infant formula plants are being built in the United States.

Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif. noted that when the Puerto Rican dairy industry got into trouble in 2017, then-Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue made a special payment to the Puerto Rican producers and asked Vilsack if he plans to use the Commodity Credit Corporation, USDA’s line of credit at the Treasury, to help the California dairy industry, which is the largest in the country.

Vilsack said he has to stick within the rules when he uses the CCC, but Valado responded that no one challenged what Purdue did for the Puerto Rican dairy farmers. Valadao also said that cheese and almond prices are down, pistachios are headed down and table grape growers are suffering.

Later in the hearing, Harris said that Vilsack seems to get approval from the USDA’s general counsel for projects he wants such as the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, which the Republicans have questioned, but doesn’t seem willing to help Californians.

Harris also said he doesn’t understand how Vilsack thinks the CCC could be used to support farm safety net programs, but Vilsack responded that he said that Congress should figure out how to direct USDA to use the CCC for farm safety net programs.

Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Vilsack had a contentious discussion about the role that USDA plays or does not play in the Labor Department’s determination of wage rates for H-2A foreign farm workers.

Moolenaar said the wage rates are so high it will force farms in his district out of business and that the farm workers are worried about losing their jobs.

Vilsack said Congress should resolve the issue by passing the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which passed the House in the last Congress but failed in the Senate.

Moolenaar noted that USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service collects the Farm Labor Survey, which is used by the Labor Department to determine the wage rates for the foreign workers.

Moolenaar told Vilsack that as the agriculture secretary, he should be standing up for farmers in discussions with the Labor Department. But Vilsck replied that “there are two parties” — farmers and farmworkers — in this dicussion. One issue, Vilsack said, is that the survey shows farm workers are being asked to do higher skilled jobs.

“This is hard work. Isn’t it fair to make sure they are adequately compensated?,” Vilsack said.

“They are overcompensated and putting the farms at risk,” Moolenaar replied.

“I am not sure they are overcompensated,” Vilsack shot back.

“You are standing by idly while the secretary of labor raises the wage rates. You are the only one who can stand up for farmers,” Moolenaar said.

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., one of sponsors of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, thanked Vilsack for his support for the bill, but said the adverse wage rate used to determine the farm worker wages is very high in Washington state.

Vilsack said it should not be so difficult to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, but “politics are involved.”

Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., the ranking member on the subcommittee, said peanut and cotton farmers in his district say they are in economic difficulty, and asked Vilsack about making a special payment to them to provide help until the next farm bill is passed.

Bishop noted that such a payment was made to rice growers, but Vilsack noted that to make the $250 million payment to rice growers “we had to give up something,” and asked Bishop what he would give up to make that payment.

Vilsack told Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, he appreciates more money in the fiscal 2024 Agriculture appropriations bill to track foreign farmland purchases, but added it remains “an imperfect system” because there are more than 3,000 county recorder offices in the country and the only way to have a complete record would be to track every farmland transaction.”

Hinson also asked about state labeling of pesticides. Vilsack said the situation after the Supreme Court ruled that California Proposition 12 law on what kind of pork can be sold in the state creates “a real opportunity for inconsistency and lack of clarity.”

Asked by Rep. Barbara Lee, R-Calif., about agriculture sales to Cuba, Vilsack said the market is constrained by the provision in the law that requires Cuba to pay cash in advance in dollars for its purchases.