Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The federal farm bill stalled in a U.S. Senate a few weeks ago after a split vote on the matter.

Senator Dick Durbin, speaking recently to reporters in Springfield, says there’s a key to getting successful votes on the bill.

“History tells you that the only way you pass a farm bill is to get Senators and Congressmen from non-farm states to vote for it,” said Durbin (D-Springfield).  “In the 1960’s, we came up with a farm bill…we’ll do the farm programs critical for the farm states, and for all the rest, we’ll do the food and nutrition programs.”

Durbin says this time, what he called radical changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or, SNAP, were proposed, and those weren’t going to fly with a lot of lawmakers.

“This time around, unfortunately, the administration said, ‘We are going to make some dramatic changes in terms of the SNAP program — the old food stamp program — and we’re going to see thousands of people declared ineligible for it,'” said Durbin.  “We came back and said, ‘You can’t do that in such a short order.'”

Democrats asked for two years before the changes would take effect.  Republicans, Durbin claims, came back and asked for only one year, and he says that’s where talks stalled.

An amendment Durbin offered that would have helped keep rural healthcare in place, failed.