10-06-2001

AGRICULTURE: House Stubbornly Proceeds on Farm Bill

The House this week took up the Farm Security Act-a 10-year, $170 billion
farm bill that would replace the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act-despite an
October 3 statement from the Bush Administration saying that it does not
support the legislation because it is too expensive and does not comply
with its free-market economic views. The bill continues Freedom to Farm
payments at low levels, but also institutionalizes the emergency farm
payments of recent years in a new program of funds to be distributed when
crop prices are low. At press time, the House was debating a pivotal
amendment-sponsored by Reps. Ron Kind, D-Wis., and Sherwood L. Boehlert,
R-N.Y., among others-that would shift $1.9 billion per year in commodity
supports to conservation programs. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and
Forestry Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and ranking member Richard
G. Lugar, R-Ind., believe that conservation should be a bigger part of the
farm bill than the House legislation provides. Lugar said the House was
leaving the job of dealing with "reality" up to the Senate,
where the farm bill is expected to come up later this year or early next
year.


Jerry Hagstrom/CongressDaily

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