Senate passes Farm Bill

AP and Staff Reports

May 15, 2008 10:20 pm

— WASHINGTON — Congress sent the White House a huge election-year farm bill Thursday that includes a boost in farm subsidies and more money for food stamps amid rising grocery prices.
Bush has threatened to veto the $290 billion bill, saying it is fiscally irresponsible and too generous to wealthy corporate farmers in a time of record crop prices.
But Congress disagreed, passing the bill by overwhelming margins in both chambers — enough to override a veto. The Senate vote was 81-15 Thursday, a day after the House approved it with 318 “yes” votes.
About two-thirds of the bill would pay for domestic nutrition programs such as food stamps and emergency food aid for the needy. An additional $40 billion is for farm subsidies, while almost $30 billion would pay farmers to idle their land and to other environmental programs.
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer again criticized the bill after Tuesday’s House vote, saying it has the wrong priorities.
“It does not target help for the farmers who really need it, and it increases the size and cost of government while jeopardizing the future of legitimate farm programs by damaging the credibility of farm bills in general,” he said.
Congress has only overridden one veto, on a water projects bill, during Bush’s two terms.
Congressional negotiators met for weeks in an effort to come closer to the White House on the amount of money to be paid to wealthy farmers — one of the chief sticking points with the administration. But drastic cuts to subsidies were not possible, lawmakers said, because of the clout of Southern lawmakers who represent rice and cotton farms that are more expensive to run.
“This bill has reform in it,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “Could we have done more? Perhaps. But if we’d done more we wouldn’t have gotten a bill.”
One in six jobs in Georgia is agriculture related and dollars generated from the agriculture industry have a direct impact on the state’s economy, said U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., ranking Republican member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. In 2006, the food and fiber industry generated a total economic impact of $55.2 billion for the state of Georgia.
“This farm bill, which I coauthored, will invest nearly $286 billion in programs that will greatly benefit Georgians in both rural and urban areas across the state,” he said.
“We are now one step closer to making the new farm bill a reality,” Chambliss said. “Our bill provides certainty to America’s farmers and ranchers and restates the strong commitment of Congress to the hungry and less fortunate. The farm bill includes provisions to help low-income Americans meet nutritional needs by providing school children with increased access to fresh fruit and vegetables and enhancing our investments to the Food Stamp Program and food banks. We have written a good bill not only for American agriculture, but for millions of needy Americans and I strongly urge the president to sign it into law.”
The legislation would make small cuts to direct payments that are distributed to some farmers no matter how much they grow. The farm bill also would eliminate some federal payments to individuals with more than $750,000 in annual farm income — or married farmers who make more than $1.5 million.
“One section of the bill which seems to be an easy target to those who know little about what it takes to run a farming operation, particularly in the Southeast, is the payment limit provisions of the commodity title. Critics made the same charges in 2002 before the farm bill resulted in an unprecedented $20 billion in savings from the commodity title alone. Those critics will be hard pressed to claim that this farm bill does not contain real reforms in the payment limit provisions — because it does,” Chambliss said.
Individuals who make more than $500,000 or couples who make more than $1 million jointly in nonfarm income also would not be eligible for subsidies. Under current law, there is no income limit for farmers receiving subsidies, and married couples who make less than one-fourth of their income from farming will not receive subsidies if their joint income exceeds $5 million.
The administration originally proposed a cap for those who make more than $200,000 in annual gross income, but later indicated it could accept a limit of $500,000. Previously, negotiators were considering a $950,000 income cap on farm income.
“We eliminated the ‘three entity rule,’ implemented reforms on payment caps and adjusted gross income tests for commodity program benefits, and implemented direct attribution, to name a few,” Chambliss said. “We developed a very market-oriented process so that our farmers and ranchers can achieve their income stream from the market place and not from Washington. That is what they want, and that is what we want.”
The bill is mostly about non-farming issues such as reforming the Endangered Species Act, providing tax credits to preserve rural lands and support for our nation’s food banks, he said.
“Despite these provisions, one of our biggest critics has been the Bush Administration. The president has said he will veto this bill. Not only would this be a catastrophic mistake for Georgia and for the entire country, but a veto would deny the implementation of all the improvements and reforms we wrote to make this a better farm bill. There is no question we have crafted a bipartisan and fiscally responsible farm bill that moves in the direction of what the administration requested,” Chambliss said.
“At the very core, this farm bill provides a strong safety net for our producers, improves our nutrition assistance programs, provides a meaningful conservation title that encourages good land stewardship, and provides incentives for renewable energy and research. The president should support this bill,” he said.
The bill also would:
• Boost nutrition programs, including food stamps and emergency domestic food aid, by more than $10 billion over 10 years. It would expand a program to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to schoolchildren. Chambliss has noted that the increase was no small accomplishment and additional resources were made available by reductions in the commodity and crop insurance programs.
Georgia is among the top 10 states for issuance of federal food stamp benefits and more than $1.12 billion was pumped into the state’s economy last year. In addition, every five dollars of federal food stamp benefits generates $9.20 in local economic activity, benefiting low-income families, farmers, grocers and small businesses throughout the state, Chambliss said.
• Increase subsidies for certain crops, including fruits and vegetables excluded from previous farm bills.
• Extend and expand dairy programs.
• Increase loan rates for sugar producers.
• Urge the government to buy surplus sugar and sell it to ethanol producers for use in a mixture with corn.
• Cut a per-gallon ethanol tax credit for refiners from 51 cents to 45 cents. The credit supports the blending of fuel with the corn-based additive. More money would go to cellulosic ethanol, made from plant matter.