Washington D. C. - Republican Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson plans to approve in the U.S. House Agriculture Committee the measure to reauthorize the Farm Bill by the end of May. Puerto Rico authorities seek to include language for a federally binding transition process from the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the island.

Thompson said his goal is to approve the bill in committee before the Memorial Day recess begins on May 24. He added that he has already shared some issues with the House Democratic minority about the bill and the vote in his committee. “Without a doubt, we will mark up a farm bill out of committee before Memorial Day,” Thompson told AgriPulse.

This week, his spokesman said to El Nuevo Día that they had nothing to announce when asked whether there was already a decision regarding the proposal for Congress to leave it up to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to approve a transition plan from the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) to SNAP.

After seeing firsthand the steps the Puerto Rico government is taking toward a potential transition to SNAP - such as the pilot project in Carolina to impose work requirements - Thompson told El Nuevo Día last September that he believed the Puerto Rico government can work through the transition process - which requires improvements in infrastructure, including information systems and staffing - without needing federal legislation. “One thing that has become very clear to me is that they don’t really need Congress for the transition. I would support them with the transition” Thompson told this newspaper then.

Meanwhile, in late February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack expressed doubts about Puerto Rico being ready in the next few months to begin a transition process to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

“There´s an awful lot of work we have done in setting up the technology and the staffing of this effort. So, we are working very closely with the governor. I traveled to Puerto Rico and talked to him specifically about this. I think it´s not a matter, unfortunately of weeks or months, but I think it is certainly in the foreseeable future, the expectation and the goal is to actually transition (to SNAP),” Vilsack answered when Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) asked him about the access to SNAP for Puerto Rico. Gillibrand introduced in the Senate the bill

Like Gillibrand, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has warned of Republican opposition to Puerto Rico joining SNAP.

Both Governor Pedro Pierluisi and Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner in Washington, Jenniffer González - who caucuses with Republicans and introduced the bill in the House - have insisted that it is essential that the federal government commit now to a potential transition to SNAP. Under the González and Gillibrand bills, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture would have to decide - within six months if the measure becomes law - whether to approve a five-year transition plan from the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) to SNAP.

According to a feasibility study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the transition process could take a decade. SNAP imposes work requirements for able-bodied adults between 18 and 54.

Under SNAP, Puerto Rico could see an increase of about $1.6 billion annually in nutrition assistance, which now, through NAP – a program that benefits over 750,000 families on the island - totals about $2.9 billion annually.

Thompson has expressed support for imposing limits on future updates to the model that adjusts SNAP benefits, an idea rejected by Democrats, including Senator Stabenow.