@cspanofficial: Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) argued Thursday against a GOP-led farm bill that includes a one-year delay of a law shifting to states part of the cost of providing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, saying it would harm the nation's poorest. "We are spiraling into a deficit and a debt, and our big idea to solve that problem is to go after the most struggling America," he said. "That is hypocrisy when there's huge ways to save money out there that nothing is being done about. But of course, that's the rich people. If poor people could afford lobbyists in this country, we wouldn't be doing this." Republicans' "big, beautiful" reconciliation bill, approved last year, requires any state with a SNAP payment error rate of 6% or higher to pay a share of the program's costs. In an effort to win Democratic support for the farm bill, Republicans offered a one-year delay, but Democrats held firm on their demand for a two-year delay and were able to block the bill from advancing out of the Agriculture Committee. "All of us knew before we walked in this room this is gonna fall to a partisan vote over SNAP payments," Sen. Booker said. "So, it's hard for me to sit here and participate in the kabuki theater of fiscal responsibility." The New Jersey Democrat argued that quibbling over a one- or two-year delay was inconsequential compared with other ways the government could save money. "I sat with Lindsey Graham who was telling me the hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse in the military," Sen. Booker said. "And I'm sitting here watching poor people across America worry about losing pennies because we're talking about fraud and abuse when we don't do it where the richest Americans are getting over on government in a way that makes no sense." #corybooker #farmbill #snap #cspan

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Friday 07 August 2026 14:48:44 GMT