The House has approved a bill that extends funding to the government through Dec. 11, after reaching a deal with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin late Tuesday to avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1.
The short term spending bill includes nearly $8 billion in nutrition assistance to help provide for children who normally receive school lunches amid the widespread shutdown of schools as a result of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.
The bill that Democrats initially introduced on Monday did not include the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) program providing aid to farmers that the Trump administration wanted. The latest agreement would keep payments flowing through the CCC program while adding on accountability measures.
“We also increase accountability in the Commodity Credit Corporation, preventing funds for farmers from being misused for a Big Oil bailout,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
“To help the millions of families struggling to keep food on the table during the pandemic, Democrats have renewed the vital, expiring lifeline of Pandemic EBT [Electronic Benefit Transfer] for a full year and enabled our fellow Americans in the territories to receive this critical nutrition assistance,” she said.
“Democrats secured urgently needed assistance for schoolchildren to receive meals despite the coronavirus’s disruption of their usual schedules, whether virtual or in-person, and expanded Pandemic EBT access for young children in child care,” Pelosi added.
“We also extended key flexibility for states to lower administrative requirements on SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] for families in the middle of this crisis.”
The Senate is expected to vote on the bill later this week before it reaches the president’s desk to be signed before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
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