Democratic Women’s Caucus Lays out Farm Bill Priorities, Pushes for Rural Child Care Support and More
Washington D.C. – The Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) sent a letter to House Agriculture Committee leadership laying out their 2023 Farm Bill priorities, and making clear the must-pass bill is an opportunity to tackle urgent issues facing women—including by expanding access to child care and maternal care in rural America, addressing high rates of intimate partner violence for rural women, and boosting opportunities for women growers, farmers and ranchers, and more.
DWC Chair Lois Frankel and DWC Policy Co-Chairs Ayanna Pressley and Kathy Manning led 58 of their colleagues in sending the letter.
“As members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, we write to express our support for programs and policies in the 2023 Farm Bill that help women and families and ask that the Committee especially consider the impact the policies in the Farm Bill have on women in America,” wrote the DWC members. “We believe that the Farm Bill presents a unique opportunity to address some of the major stressors that American women and families face every day, especially those in rural areas, including access to SNAP, child care, and agricultural opportunities, among other issues.”
In the letter, the members highlighted how critical SNAP and other nutrition programs are to keeping hungry families and kids fed. In addition to supporting crucial investments in SNAP, the members made clear they oppose harmful work requirements, and urge key changes to make the program more accessible including by calculating benefits to accurately reflect food costs, removing the prohibition on purchasing hot food, expanding access for college students, and more.
The Democratic Women’s Caucus also made clear the 2023 Farm Bill is an opportunity to make critical progress to address other stressors impacting rural women.
Specifically they noted that the lack of child care is holding our rural economy back, “59 percent of rural communities are child care deserts, areas where there are too few licensed slots for the number of children, and rural families have even fewer options for child care than urban and suburban families. … While families in metropolitan areas spend 10.8 percent of their income on child care, rural families spend even more, with an average of 12.2 percent of their household income going to child care costs. We strongly support opening additional lines of credit to rural America to support child care access.”
They also pushed for the 2023 Farm Bill to expand access to maternal health and telehealth services for women, address the higher rates of intimate partner violence for rural women, and expand opportunities and support for women farmers and growers—noting that currently 64 percent of all U.S. producers are men.
Ultimately, the DWC members made clear that, “Congress must not waste the opportunity to improve the lives of millions of Americans and strengthen our communities, and that starts with ensuring issues impacting women are addressed in this vital piece of legislation.”
In addition to Chair Frankel and Policy Co-Chairs Pressley and Manning, the letter was sent by Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Alma Adams, Becca Balint, Nanette Barragán, Suzanne Bonamici, Julia Brownley, Shontel Brown, Cori Bush, Yadira Caraveo, Kathy Castor, Judy Chu, Yvette Clarke, Angie Craig, Jasmine Crockett, Sharice Davids, Madeleine Dean, Rosa DeLauro, Debbie Dingell, Veronica Escobar, Sylvia Garcia, Jahana Hayes, Chrissy Houlahan, Val Hoyle, Sheila Jackson Lee, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Annie Kuster, Barbara Lee, Summer Lee, Teresa Leger Fernandez, Zoe Lofgren, Doris Matsui, Lucy McBath, Jennifer McClellan, Grace Meng, Gwen Moore, Grace Napolitano, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mary Peltola, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Brittany Pettersen, Chellie Pingree, Katie Porter, Andrea Salinas, Mary Gay Scanlon, Jan Schakowsky, Terri Sewell, Mikie Sherrill, Melanie Stansbury, Haley Stevens, Emilia Sykes, Rashida Tlaib, Norma Torres, Lori Trahan, Nydia Velázquez, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Jennifer Wexton, and Nikema Williams.
Read the full letter HERE, and below.
June 7, 2023
The Honorable Glenn “GT” Thompson Chairman
House Committee on Agriculture
1301 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C., 20515
The Honorable David Scott Ranking Member
House Committee on Agriculture
1010 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C., 20515
Dear Chairman Thompson and Ranking Member Scott,
We thank you for your leadership on the House Committee on Agriculture and your commitment to delivering a timely and bipartisan Farm Bill. As members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, we write to express our support for programs and policies in the 2023 Farm Bill that help women and families and ask that the Committee especially consider the impact the policies in the Farm Bill have on women in America. We believe that the Farm Bill presents a unique opportunity to address some of the major stressors that American women and families face every day, especially those in rural areas, including access to SNAP, child care, and agricultural opportunities, among other issues. We urge you to address these issues listed below in the 2023 Farm Bill.
Nutrition
We support the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and vehemently oppose any effort to undermine this vital program, including harmful work requirements. According to a report by the National Women's Law Center from 2018, women comprised nearly 63 percent of SNAP recipients under 60, and 91 percent of single parent SNAP households were headed by women. SNAP is a highly responsive, means-tested program that gives stability to millions of women and families in need and is a powerful anti-poverty tool. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service, investing in SNAP during a slowing economy also increases GDP and supports jobs. Investing in SNAP helps women and families and supports the health of our economy.
In addition to investing in SNAP, we also support measures to make the program more accessible and workable for all women by, for example, streamlining the application and paperwork process. This includes codifying the pandemic waiver set up by USDA that allows states to waive audio recording requirements in favor of simple verbal affirmations from SNAP applicants and removing the prohibition on purchasing hot foods and hot food products, allowing assistance to reach more women and families in need. We also support increased accessibility for college students and disadvantaged populations by expanding benefits, ensuring awareness, and removing bureaucratic barriers that block students and disadvantaged populations from healthy foods. If we truly want all women to succeed, we need to ensure they can access SNAP and a healthy diet at every stage of their life.
We support measures to update and maintain how USDA calculates SNAP benefit amounts in order to more accurately reflect food costs, such as the reevaluation of the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP). Regular reevaluation is essential so women and families can actually access healthy foods as the program intends. Before the 2018 Farm Bill, evidence consistently showed benefit levels were too low to provide for a realistic, healthy diet, even with households contributing their own funds towards groceries. Specifically, a USDA study found before the 2021 TFP assessment, nearly nine out of ten SNAP participants reported facing barriers to achieving a healthy diet. The most common barrier was the cost of healthy foods. Moms already face enough stressors; feeding their families healthy food should not be one of them. Furthermore, we also support increased funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and measures to make the program more accessible for all women, including disadvantaged populations, policies to make it more effective, and efforts to expand collaboration with local distributors to cater to communities’ different dietary needs.
Access to nutritious foods is essential to women and families’ success and we must keep this in mind as we work to pass the Farm Bill.
Rural Child Care and Health Care Access
We also believe the Farm Bill is an opportunity to invest in the rural care economy and address systemic issues that impact women, especially child care, as it disproportionally affects rural America. A recent report from the Center for American Progress found that 59 percent of rural communities are child care deserts, areas where there are too few licensed slots for the number of children, and rural families have even fewer options for child care than urban and suburban families. Rural families also spend more of their income on and travel farther for their care arrangements. While families in metropolitan areas spend 10.8 percent of their income on child care, rural families spend even more, with an average of 12.2 percent of their household income going to child care costs. We strongly support opening additional lines of credit to rural America to support child care access and are eager to work with the Committee to make this a priority in the 2023 Farm Bill.
In addition to the child care crisis, the maternal health crisis also disproportionately affects women in rural America. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2021, maternal deaths increased 40 percent from the previous year. Women in rural and underserved communities face additional risks and challenges, such as a lack of access to coordinated care, that lead to higher rates of maternal mortality and other severe health complications. We support increasing Community Facilities program funding to rural hospitals specifically for maternal health and maternal telehealth services. In addition, we support the creation of a grant program for healthy food and clean water for pregnant and postpartum women to deliver healthy food, infant formula, clean water, and diapers to people in food deserts. We must meet these important needs for women by providing robust support for rural health care systems through the Farm Bill.
Women in Agriculture
According to USDA's 2017 Census of Agriculture, 64 percent of all U.S. producers were men. As production continues to consolidate, we support efforts to uplift underserved women farmers by investing in outreach, assistance, loans, and grant programs designed for Socially Disadvantaged Ranchers and Farmers, and other underserved producers. Specifically, we support robust investments in the Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program, which will be key in supporting underserved women in agriculture. In 2017, just 5 percent of female producers were non-white, something the Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program—the “2501 Program”—was established to address, and we encourage the Committee to invest in and make improvements to the program to increase the amount of women producers, especially non-white women. For women to advance in agriculture, we must ensure they can access all USDA programs and land equitably so that they have adequate support for their farming needs and can adopt climate-smart practices.
To ensure that the next generation of women is fully prepared to enter the agricultural workforce, we support robust funding for 1862, 1890, and 1994 land-grant institutions. By funding scholarships, infrastructure, and extension programs at these universities, we can ensure that young women from all backgrounds can learn the skills they need to succeed in agribusiness.
We also support efforts to promote women in agricultural research and encourage the Committee to explore how the administration of USDA’s predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships impact women in science. Additionally, we must ensure that we have an accurate assessment of the role of women in agriculture. Currently, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) statistics on women are not comparable among census years and the number of women designated as primary producers may be overestimated given that the census does not emphasize financial decision-making.
Violence Prevention
Women in rural America experience higher rates of intimate partner violence. The Farm Bill is an opportunity to address this issue. We support increased outreach and awareness campaigns on the eligibility of shelters to receive Community Facilities funding. We also support reauthorization of the Emergency and Transitional Pet Shelter and Housing Assistance Grant program at $5 million to continue to support accommodation services for survivors of domestic violence and their companion animals.
We look forward to discussing these issues with you in further detail to ensure this Farm Bill uplifts women and families across the United States. Congress must not waste the opportunity to improve the lives of millions of Americans and strengthen our communities, and that starts with ensuring issues impacting women are addressed in this vital piece of legislation. Please consider our Caucus a collaborative partner in the Farm Bill process. We stand ready to ensure there are wins for women in the Farm Bill.
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