Santa Barbara Rep. Carbajal Says Farm Bill Ignores ‘Devastating SNAP Cuts’ in ‘Big Ugly Bill’

Last week in Washington, the House Agriculture Committee advanced the Farm Bill, a piece of legislation drafted every five years that allocates funding and outlines policies for farmers, environmental regulation, and food assistance programs. Representative Salud Carbajal, who represents Santa Barbara and is a member of the Agriculture Committee, said in a March 5 press release that this farm bill falls short and does not protect the country’s most vulnerable people when it comes to food.  

“This legislation ignores the devastating SNAP cuts included in the ‘Big Ugly Bill,’ which threaten food security for our most vulnerable citizens as grocery prices continue to skyrocket,” he said. 

SNAP, known as CalFresh in California and formerly called Food Stamps, makes up a large part of the Farm Bill. In 2024, the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry said that about 79 percent of the $1.5 trillion allocated to programs in the bill would go to SNAP (that’s over a 10-year period). 

Starting June 1, federal work requirements for SNAP will require able-bodied people to work at least 80 hours per month until age 65, rather than age 55. The new regulations will also mandate parents with dependents 14 and older work those 80 hours monthly, and remove work exemptions for others including veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and young adults recently in foster care. These changes were put in place by President Trump’s budget bill last year. Currently, Santa Barbara County has approximately 55,000 people use SNAP to afford groceries each month.

Carbajal, along with other Democrats in the committee, voted last week for amendments to the Farm Bill that would have reversed Trump’s cuts to SNAP. The amendments, introduced by Representative Jahana Hayes, a Democrat from Connecticut, also rolled back the new work requirements. These amendments did not pass in the Agriculture Committee.

Laurel Alcantar is the director of marketing with Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, a major food distributor in the county. She said that the county has a large number of people employed in the agriculture sector and the service industry, and that their work is not always consistent — they may be gainfully employed one week and out of work the next. The new SNAP work regulations will create additional hurdles for them, as well as burden local social services. 

“This is going to have a drastic impact, especially right now,” Alcantar said, pointing out that with gas and food prices rising, the cost of living is going up. 

Last year, the Public Policy Institute of California found that Santa Barbara County had the second-higher poverty rate in the state. 

Alcantar said that the reality is, with these new requirements, some people will go hungry. 

The Farm Bill does provide funding for food delivery to older adults. Introduced by Republican Zachary Nunn of Iowa, the Delivering for Rural Seniors Act, which is folded into the Farm Bill, will make grant money available for local agencies delivering meals to low-income rural seniors. Food banks across the country, including the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, asked lawmakers to include it last month. 

Representative Carbajal said that while he commends this provision, he could not in good conscience ignore the SNAP cuts that the bill did not address.

All told, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that 2.4 million people will be cut off from SNAP each month through 2034. 

The Farm Bill will now advance for a vote in the House of Representatives.