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HEADLINE: N.D. Senator Aims to Tighten Farm Subsidy Program

BYLINE: John Lancaster, Washington Post Staff Writer

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Spurred by tales of millionaire farmers reaping big profits at taxpayer expense, Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) plans to introduce legislation this week that would sharply reduce the amount of money farmers can receive from federal programs intended to preserve small and medium-size family farms.

In an interview last week, Dorgan said the measure would lower the annual limit on crop subsidies to individual farmers from $ 460,000 to $ 275,000, tighten eligibility rules and curb some of the legal dodges by which "corporate agrifactories" milk large sums from federal farm programs.

Dorgan said he would propose the changes as an amendment to the farm bill, which would authorize farm programs for the next decade at a cost of $ 172 billion and is scheduled for debate on the Senate floor next week. The Senate began debating the measure in December but was unable to reach agreement before the holiday recess. The House has passed a version of the farm bill that doesn't lower subsidy caps. "This has become a transfer payment from ordinary taxpayers to some of the largest producers in the country, who need it the least," Dorgan said of farm subsidy programs. "I am not interested in putting together a farm bill that takes scarce resources to allow people to farm the entire county. What we should do is use the money we have to provide the strongest safety net we can for family farmers during tough times."

Dorgan's proposal has considerable bipartisan support, but it has aroused fervent opposition from groups representing major commodity producers as well as lawmakers from southern states, where farms tend to be larger than those in the upper Midwest. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), for example, has warned that lower payment limits would bankrupt many Arkansas farmers, already suffering the effects of low prices and rising production costs. Mary Kay Thatcher of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the nation's largest farm organization, said many of the largest farms involve extended families and could not stay in business without federal support. "It's not just a farmer and his spouse," she said. "It's several brothers and their kids. So that money is often supporting more than one family."

Moreover, she added, "payment limits really bite the hardest when commodity prices are lower," as they are now. "It's really hitting farmers at their worst."

Some farm groups take a different view. The National Farmers Union, which represents 300,000 family farmers, has declared its support for Dorgan's amendment. "If you don't have a payment limit, you increase consolidation within the industry, meaning the government is protecting the risk regardless of size," said Tom Buis, the group's vice president for government relations. "If someone wants to get big," he added, "they should do it because of market signals," not because of subsidies.



LOAD-DATE: February 03, 2002