(Iowa News Service) – One version of the Farm Bill being debated in Congress would cut billions of dollars in SNAP benefits from agriculture-dependent states, including Iowa. Groups fighting hunger in the state are pushing back. The version of the Farm Bill released by House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson would cut nearly 30-billion dollars in SNAP benefits over the next decade – 170-million in Iowa, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Iowa Hunger Coalition Board Chair Luke Elzinga says based on those projections, the cuts would have a big impact on the most vulnerable people in the state.

The so-called Thrifty Food Plan, which creates funding formulas for SNAP and other food assistance programs, would also freeze future benefits. Thompson (R-Penn.) and others have argued this version of the Farm Bill amounts to responsible budgeting and future planning.

Elzinga’s coalition has provided numbers showing SNAP benefits are already not enough to keep up with providing the lowest-cost meals in the state, and come in about 20-percent below what it takes to make ends meet at the dinner table.

This isn’t the final version of the Farm Bill to be debated, but Elzinga argues releasing a measure with such major cuts to SNAP benefits isn’t a good starting point for negotiations. In his view, it creates the perception that for Congress, low-income people are not high on the priority list.