WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2015 – House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway says his committee will conduct a “full-scale review” of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
However, the Texas Republican gave no timetable for the oversight work and stopped short of saying the committee would pursue any changes to the program beyond what were in the farm bill.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here today: I am not pre-judging the outcome of the work our committee will undertake,” Conaway said at the committee’s organizational meeting on Thursday.
“We owe it to American taxpayers to do a thoughtful and thorough review of not only the SNAP program but all of the other programs under our jurisdiction.”
Conaway said the committee also would ensure that the new farm bill is implemented properly. The only new legislation he mentioned was a bill to reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that would include “key end-user protections.”
A CFTC bill that the committee approved in the last Congress went nowhere in the Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats. This year, the Senate Agriculture Committee plans to move a CFTC measure.
The committee’s first hearing is expected to be with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. No date has been set.
