Agriculture Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte recommended food stamp cuts of $844 million over five years by tightening program eligibility. One step would require immigrants to wait seven years, instead of the current five, before asking for benefits.
Some 25 million Americans rely on food stamps to help buy groceries each month. More than half a million people received disaster food stamps after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29.
Members of the Agriculture Committee were scheduled to meet on Friday to vote on the package. Along with cutting food stamps, it would pare crop supports by $1 billion, land stewardship by $734 million, rural development by $446 million and agricultural research by $620 million.
Mary Kay Thatcher of the American Farm Bureau Federation greeted the package as "an improvement" from earlier versions that aimed for $4.25 billion in cuts. "I still think they're in for real trouble," she said, on food stamps.
Antihunger activists say there is no justification for cutting food stamps, considering how this year's wave of hurricanes showed the value of the program. Rising heating costs also will pinch the poor, they say.
Two committee staffers said food stamps were such a large part of USDA programs - 60 percent - that is was only fair to cut them along with other programs. Goodlatte's goal was that "no one program would bear more of a burden than another," said Alise Kowalski, spokeswoman for the Virginia Republican. "When you spread (the cuts) it makes it easier."
Another committee staffer said food stamps had to be included "if you're going to have a balanced" package. Goodlatte aides say the overall cuts would be slightly more than 1 percent of USDA programs over five years - a minimal amount.
Democrats on the panel were expected to oppose food stamp cuts.