House Passes Food Stamp-Less Farm Bill Despite President's Veto Threat

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The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted 216-208 Thursday afternoon to pass a scaled-down version of a massive farm bill stripped of funding for government nutrition programs (i.e. food stamps).

"The GOP leaders scrambled to get the bill to the floor Thursday and gather enough votes this week after making a decision to drop a politically sensitive food stamp section of the bill and pass legislation that contained only farm programs," the Associated Press reports.

"The plan faced opposition from Democrats, farm groups and conservative groups. But Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia navigated his colleagues to a 216-208 vote," the report adds.

The bill will now head to the desk of President Barack Obama who has already threatened to veto it because it fails to renew funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“The House Rules Committee held a hearing on the new version of the so-called farm bill, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, beginning at 9 p.m. on Wednesday night and posted the more than 600 page bill not long thereafter,” The Hill reports.

The White House was unhappy with the House’s late vote, saying in a statement “because the 608 page bill was made available only this evening, the administration has had inadequate time to fully review the text of the bill. It is apparent, though, that the bill does not contain sufficient commodity and crop insurance reforms and does not invest in renewable energy, an important source of jobs and economic growth in rural communities across the country.”

Although the administration's veto threat was swift, it was not unexpected.

Indeed, as noted earlier on TheBlaze, it wasn't too difficult to predict this reaction from the White House.

Here's a complete breakdown of the House vote:

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Featured image AP photos. This post has been updated.