Congressman Randy Neugebauer Discusses SNAP Program And PATH Housing Reform Act [AUDIO]

On Monday's edition of Lubbock's First News, Congressman Randy Neugebauer talked with Tom Collins and guest host Sondra Ziegler about the latest going on in Washington.

After the failure of the Farm Bill last month, Republicans in the House were able to pass a new Farm Bill last week by separating the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, from the federal agriculture policies. As it stands, there's no word on how the SNAP reforms will fare on their own in the House or Senate. But Neugebauer said that if nothing changes, SNAP and all of its faults will continue to be stuck in "autopilot."

"The interesting thing about the SNAP program is that is it kind of on autopilot, so if nothing is done, the SNAP program just continues the way it is. Now, some of us find that troubling because we feel like there needs to be some reforms in that program because it's growing at an exponetional rate. So we'll have to see what exactly the next step is here,. In fact, one of the steps could be that the House and the Senate could agree on just the production and agriculture side and send that bill to the President but the President may not sign that bill without the SNAP program being addressed at the same time."

Neugebauer also discussed the latest with the Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners, or PATH Act. If passed, the act would completely reform housing finance by ending the government bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and eventually phase out both companies in the next 5 years.

Neugebauer explained that, after the housing crash of 2008, roughly 90% of all mortgages were funded by taxpayers through not only Fannie and Freddie, but also the Federal Housing Administration, which overstretched its initial purpose of loaning to first-time and low to moderate income home buyers. He said that he hopes the act will bring the FHA back to its traditional role of loaning strictly to those first-time and low-income home buyers. The Financial Services Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the PATH Act on July 18th.

You can listen to Congressman Randy Neugebauer Mondays at 7:35 during Lubbock's First News on NewsTalk 790 KFYO and online at KFYO.com.