<p>With the house giving its stamp of approval earlier last week, the U.S. Senate has followed in suit passing the nearly $1 trillion farm bill now in Obama's hands.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Barry J. Bedwell, President of the California Grape and Tree Fruit League, tells AndNowUKnow, “As opposed to the dysfunction we usually see coming from Washington DC, the joyful passage of the Agricultural Act of 2014 is extremely encouraging in two important ways. Namely, the continued recognition of the value in investing in fruits and vegetables for the health of our citizens and the hope that there may be more cooperation and bi-partisan solutions ahead given the challenge of such issues as immigration reform.” </p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>One aspect of this bill is its legislation to expand federal crop insurance while ending direct payments to farmers, according to a report in Reuters. In addition the bill includes a cut to the food stamps program of about 1%.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>The Senate voted 68-32 to pass the long awaited farm bill which has faced a host of issues including the size of cuts to the food stamp program. Expectations are that President Obama will sign the bill.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The report notes that the Congressional Budget Office says the $956 billion legislation will save $16.6 billion over 10 years, relative to current funding. Under a different form of scoring, savings could reach $23 billion.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/04/us-usa-agriculture-farmbill-idUSBREA131GO20140204" target="_new">Reuters</a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
