RALEIGH, N.C. - The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote Thursday on the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, more commonly known as the Farm Bill.

While the name might imply it will influence only the country's agriculture industry, the impact extends far beyond that. At stake in this year's legislation are measures that would institute work requirements for SNAP recipients.

It might sound like a reasonable expectation on the surface – but Beth Messersmith, North Carolina campaign director for MomsRising, said the implications run deep in the Tar Heel State.

"When we talk about the Farm Bill, it's not something vague that happens in Washington," she said. "It's going to have very real impacts here at home, and it's particularly going to hit hard parents with young children, those with disabilities, those caring for someone with disabilities and our seniors."

North Carolina is the 10th hungriest state in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and at least one in seven families struggles to put food on its table daily.

More than half of SNAP recipients aleady work, Messersmith said, and those who do not often are incapable of working. Without the benefits, many will rely on community food pantries, already struggling to meet the needs of their communities.

Messersmith said the new work requirements don't take into account fluctuating hours of many service-industry jobs and related needs that come from working, such as child care and transportation.

"If they saw their hours cut at work, they could be at risk of losing their SNAP benefits for up to a year," she said. "Seniors, for example; if they can't meet the minimum number of work requirements because of age discrimination, they would be at risk of losing the SNAP benefits they rely on. "

While the legislation starts at the federal level, Messersmith said it will fall to the states to find funding to enforce the legislation.

"States are going to have to provide increased job training and employment, but it doesn't provide meaningful funding to help states do that," she said, "and it's going to say that states have to track the work hours of these 6 million to 7 million SNAP recipients every month, but it really doesn't provide the funding to make that happen."

The Farm Bill would cut SNAP funding by $17 billion, a savings partly needed to cover the cost of the tax cuts passed by Congress last year. Its text is online at agriculture.house.gov.

Reporting by North Carolina News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the Park Foundation.


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Coaches in the Renton School District, just south of Seattle, are organizing with the American Federation of Teachers to fight for what they say are "fair wages" in their first union contract.

Buddy Ryan, head boys track and field coach at Hazen High School, said Renton coaches get paid much less compared with neighboring school districts, which contributes to a 45% turnover rate in coaches from year to year.

"I'm not expecting to go buy a new car off a season of coaching, but I'm not expecting to make minimum wage to be responsible for all these kids," he said. "I think the reality is, a fair wage for a fair day's work is what everybody looks for."

Renton School District has proposed a 2.5% wage increase, far below what the coaches asked for. AFT has said the district has the funds to pay coaches fairly. The district did not respond to a request for comment.

Ryan said the low pay and high turnover rate costs the district more money in training and degrades the quality of the sports programs.

"And then what's the cost to the kids that get a different coach every year? Well, you know what ends up happening? These parents get tired of it and they take their kids to private schools, or they move and transfer them to other schools," he said.

Ryan noted that sports, along with other extracurriculars such as band, are what motivate many kids to keep their grades up in order to participate. He said the district should want to keep the programs strong.

"It's just like when you're a kid at dinner," he said, "and your parents say, 'You've got to eat your vegetables or you don't get dessert.' Well, that dessert is the after-school activities."

Nevada groups concerned about affordability, clean air and health care are speaking out against the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" recently signed by President Donald Trump.

The new law extends tax cuts from 2017, funded partially by huge cuts to Medicaid and SNAP food benefits.

Dr. Joanne Leovy, steering committee chair for the Nevada Clinicians for Climate Action, noted it also ends the tax credit for electric vehicles on Sept. 30, which drives up the price of an EV by $7,500 while promoting the sales of gas-powered vehicles.

"This bill will dump an extra 2.1 billion tons of climate pollution into the atmosphere over the next decade," Leovy pointed out. "Increasing greenhouse gas emissions by about 7% over prior projections; the equivalent of adding more than 400,000 cars to the road."

The new law also cuts tax credits for rooftop solar and energy efficient home upgrades. Backers said the savings were necessary to fund other administration priorities, such as increased funding for immigration enforcement.

Yolanda Kemp, a member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 4041, said she worries about job losses in the public sector.

"When states, cities, towns, and schools lose essential federal funding, they will be forced to make cuts to their budgets as well, putting all public services and jobs at risk of being cut," Kemp stressed. "And let me tell you, the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' that is supposed to help hardworking Americans is nothing more than another billionaire giveaway paid for by us."

The change to Medicaid and SNAP are not immediate but will be phased in mostly in 2027 and 2028.


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More than 1,100 caregivers at Portland's Providence St. Vincent Medical Center have voted to unionize, joining the Service Employees International Union Local 49.

Hospital staffers, including certified nursing assistants, cooks, lab assistants, pharmacy techs, environmental workers and patient representatives, will soon begin collective bargaining with management over a new work contract.

Finn McCool, senior food service attendant at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, said changes to working conditions in the hospital were a major driver to organize.

"There's a lot that makes St. Vincent a great place to work, but we've also seen just tons of changes over the years around staffing and benefits," McCool explained. "My fellow caregivers really knew that jobs were only going to get harder."

The St. Vincent caregivers will join thousands of other unionized workers at Providence hospitals in Oregon, Washington state and other parts of the country. Providence officials released a statement, recognizing the union and saying they were prepared to work with it toward a new contract.

McCool noted the company made several changes to staffing and work policies without feedback from its employees, with changes to the employees' health care benefits causing a major upheaval.

"It's been a recent change to our health care plan with Aetna switching over, and that was probably a very large reason why a lot of us decided to vote yes," McCool pointed out. "We had our own internal health care system. We changed to a different thing. Co-pays changed. Things were definitely a lot harder with increased deductibles."

McCool stressed political uncertainty, particularly in the government's health care policies, was also a significant concern.

"We're seeing a lot of changes going on with the government with cuts, especially right now," McCool observed. "What threatens us is cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Our CEO said, 'These cuts are threatening the hospital.'"