tentative trade agreement with mexico and canada. we hear from lisa blunt rochester of delaware and senator john hogan of north dakota. host: the body of president george h. w. bush lies in state at the capital with people expected to pay their respects today to the 41st president. his body will remain until tomorrow and it will be flown to houston for another service and laid to rest at the bush presidential library. this is washington journal for december 4. congress is expected to pass a farm bill with much of the cost going to the snap food assistance program currently referred to as food stamps. the republicans and president wanted to require increase the requirements of some on that bill. in our first hour, we want to get your thoughts on the drive to improve requirements for some under the snap program and should it be part of those who receive s net benefit. if you support this concept of increasing work requirements, that is left out of the final bill, but if you
eastern on c-span s q&a. continuing our discussion on the farm bill. joining us, catherine budroe of political, here to talk about the farm bill. good morning. aside from that, talk about the larger pieces, what is the ultimate purpose? the farm bill is a massive piece of legislation. it s it touches a lot of different parts of the economy. so primarily, of course, the supplemental nutrition assistance program is the largest part of the bill. that s formerly known as food stamps and then craft insurance for farmers, initiatives to help them improve the land that they re working on, the soil, the water quality. rural development, agricultural research, and there s also credit and trade, too. investment in those types of programs. what s the price tag? about $860 billion over a decade, so pretty significant price tag. how does that compare to previous farm bills? the goal of the house and senate agricultural lawmakers is to keep it budget newtal. it s going to c
ag negotiator, a co-regulator with the federal government, also an agrucultural ambassador. you deal with policy decisions. does this farm bill being debated in congress in your mind a sound policy decision? we need a farm bill. yeah, this is good to have. we have to get this passed next week. here s the story about agriculture. agriculture in our affiliated industries, we provide economic viability. $1 trillion to the u.s. gdp, 21 million jobs. and agriculture is very important to the u.s. economy. all of us eat. we all enjoy the sustainability and the affordability of foods that are our choice. so we need a farm bill. this is right now, ag is struggling, and farm income is down. the usda recently said this week farm income may be down 12% this year. so the bottom line is we need that farm bill. we re looking forward to its passage, and indeed, our members are keen on getting this passed. is that drop in income because of trade policy? some of it is, yes, but it s a