House ponders more food stamp money while Senate approves increases for financial regulators

House considers increase for food stamp program

WASHINGTON — The House took up a bill on Wednesday that funds a 14 percent increase for food stamps as more people become eligible for the program because of rising unemployment.

Across the Capitol, a Senate panel approved sharply higher budgets for the regulators of the securities and futures markets. Republicans, meanwhile, won floor votes to step up requirements for fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border and require companies doing business with the federal government to verify that they aren’t employing illegal immigrants.

The buzz of activity came as the House and Senate dug into the 12 annual appropriations bills for the agency operating budgets set by Congress each year.

Funding for the food stamp program makes up half of a $123.8 billion House measure for agriculture and nutrition programs for the 2010 budget year beginning Oct. 1. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, would receive a 10 percent increase, to $7.5 billion.

The legislation provides $3 billion for the Food and Drug Administration, a 14 percent increase. International food assistance also would get a boost, with increases for emergency humanitarian food needs and aid for poor children around the world.

The agriculture spending measure is set to pass the House on Thursday over protests from Republicans, who are irate that Democratic leaders are severely cutting back on the long-standing right of rank-and-file members to offer amendments.

In the Senate, Republicans won two rare floor victories as debate continued on a $42.9 billion measure to fund the Homeland Security Department. First, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., pushed through a plan to extend permanently the E-Verify program, which uses the Social Security database to check whether workers are in the country legally. His plan would require companies doing business with the federal government to use the system.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., won a 54-44 vote to require double-layer fences along 700 miles of the border with Mexico rather than vehicle barriers and high-tech equipment.

DeMint said the U.S.-Mexico border “has become a battleground” as drug and weapons traffickers, along with illegal immigrants, move too freely. He said the department is spending too much on “virtual” fencing such as motion detectors. Those barriers, he said, don’t work as well as a real fence designed to block people crossing the border on foot.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, countered that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency was the best judge of fencing for various parts of the border. He said some stretches of physical fencing can cost up to $5 million per mile.

DeMint’s amendment is likely to be dropped during House-Senate talks on a compromise version of the bill.

The Homeland Security measure is just the second of the 12 annual appropriations bills to reach the Senate floor. The Senate Appropriations Committee and its various subcommittees have been busy, however.

One Senate Appropriations panel easily approved a $34.3 billion measure for the Energy Department and Army Corps of Engineers’ water projects. Another appropriations panel adopted a $24.4 billion proposal for the Treasury Department, the White House and the federal contribution to the District of Columbia.

The latter measure contains a record 16 percent budget increase for the Securities and Exchange Commission and a 21 percent boost for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, prompted by recent financial scandals.

“We provide the SEC with … an unprecedented increase in resources so they can hire the technical experts and bring on the best technology to catch these crooks,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “We will be watching the SEC carefully to make sure this money is well spent and the national embarrassment of Bernard Madoff is not repeated.”

Madoff recently was sentenced to a 150-year prison term for running the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.

Durbin’s measure also would provide $13 million to fund a District of Columbia school voucher program popular with Republicans. But it would provide enough money only to cover students already enrolled in the program, to the dismay of Republicans but consistent with the budget request of President Barack Obama.