Analysts Optimistic Farm Bill Will Reach Finish Line

RENO, Nev., January 6, 2002 – Speakers at a farm bill conference held during the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting said they expect Congress to produce a new farm law early this year and downplayed differences between the pending Senate bill and the measure passed by the House in October.

AFBF President Bob Stallman emphasized that the organization wants the farm bill completed sooner rather than later. "Your organization is going to work to make that happen," he pledged.

Stallman recounted the process that led to the House passing a bipartisan measure in October and the Senate debating the farm bill up until Christmas---a process that occurred at the same time many policy-makers were dismissing the notion that a farm bill could or should be done before current law expires at the end of the 2002-crop year.

One major factor that continually propelled the farm bill forward was the unity of a Farm Bureau-led coalition of 20-30 agricultural groups that in early 2001 issued a call for $12 billion more per year in farm spending. Stallman said the unified effort was a "surprise" to those who believe ag groups can't work together. "I'm proud of that effort."

Stallman pointed to the House farm bill process as a model for what bipartisan action can achieve but acknowledged that the "political dynamic is totally different in the Senate." Farm Bureau, he explained, had one major goal in the Senate: to maintain the "funding cornerstones" contained in the House bill while keeping the bill moving through the Senate.

Stallman cited one "onerous" provision that could cause Farm Bureau to oppose the Senate farm bill, namely the amendment by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that could enable the federal government to usurp state water rights. He said the organization will do everything possible to get the provision removed from the farm bill.

Bob Young, an analyst with the University of Missouri's Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute, said he sees most factors pointing to a farm bill being finished soon. He predicted the House-Senate conference committee that will craft the final measure would start "five minutes after the Senate" completes its bill.

Young minimized the differences between the two bills, saying they provide producers with similar total payments. The Senate bill, he noted, is "front-loaded" with more generous payments at the beginning of its five-year span. The Senate payment rates are less than in the House bill but the provisions for updating bases and yields are more flexible and would result in payments similar to the House bill for most crops.

But the biggest difference, Young noted, is that the Senate measure ties payments to actual production while the House bill continues decoupled payments. "The final difference is whether you require production of a crop to get payments," he said.

Young predicted the final farm bill will continue fixed payments, have some type of counter-cyclical payments, extend dairy price supports, "reform the peanut program" and provide some updating of bases and yields. He also said the final bill will increase the conservation reserve program cap and expand the EQIP livestock conservation program.

Dick Newpher, head lobbyist for AFBF, rounded out the conference by assessing the prospects of getting a new farm bill done soon. "We're not talking about whether Congress is going to spend the money to boost farm income this year, it's only a matter of how they will spend it," he asserted.

Members of Congress cannot go home in an election year without doing something to provide continued help for farmers and ranchers, he said. Newpher added that the economic stimulus package is at the top of Congress' list of unfinished business, but the farm bill is "an economic stimulus package for rural America."

Newpher called on all Farm Bureau members to contact their members of Congress and stress the importance of getting the farm bill done soon. "If everybody in this room does their work, I think we can get it done," Newpher said.

Contacts:

Mace Thornton 847-685-8755 macet@fb.org

Don Lipton 202-484-3624 donl@fb.org

This page was last modified Mon Jan 07, 2002 at 04:44 pm