Farm Bill Conference Report

Floor Speech

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Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the House Agriculture Committee and a member of the Farm Bill Conference Committee, I am pleased that the Conference report will strengthen the existing SNAP Employment and Training program by facilitating better connections between existing workforce development efforts and employers in local communities. Specifically, conferees rejected the one-size-fits-all approach to training programs that H.R. 2 had initially adopted, as these programs have consistently proven to be ineffective--too often failing to match low-income adults with the types of training and job opportunities they need. Instead, the Farm Bill conference report supports collaboration between workforce development programs and employers already tackling this job in their communities to better serve SNAP participants--a win for both participants and for local employers.

I am also pleased that the Conference report includes several provisions that will improve the types of programs that SNAP employment and training can provide. The conference report reinforces the requirement that states properly assess clients and assign them to programs appropriate to their needs and skills. It also recognizes the important role case management services can play in helping to address barriers to work by requiring states to provide these types of services. Additionally, conferees prioritized the funding of innovative employment and training pilot programs, including pilot programs that serve specific groups with known barriers to work. These types of smart investments will have a demonstrated impact on improving client outcomes, as opposed to spending billions on the creation of large new bureaucracies to track monthly work tests for millions of SNAP participants as the House passed bill would have done.

I am also pleased that the conferees address a long-standing problem--when a SNAP participant is referred to a training program, and the program determines that the services they provide are not well matched to the needs of the participant. States have long been required to do meaningful assessments in order to properly assign clients. We believe the expanded investment in case management should improve this capacity. And, this bill emphasized that reassessment is important as well. But sometimes, when the state refers someone to a local training provider the provider--after doing their own assessment--determines that their services aren't appropriate for the individual. Under current law, that leaves the individual out of luck and even at risk of losing SNAP benefits and wastes the time and services of the training provider. The bill and report make clear that states must reassess and reassign the participant if appropriate. Participants will no longer lose benefits because states are doing a poor job of assigning them to programs that don't work for them.

The primary role of employment and training programs should always be to transition people to sustained self-reliance rather than to find reasons to cut them off from benefits.

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