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WASHINGTON (AP) The shrinking surplus has clouded prospects
for passage of legislation this year that would provide tens of billions of
dollars annually for crop subsidies and other farm programs.
Its in serious trouble, said Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman
of the Senate Budget Committee. The North Dakota Democrat wanted Congress to
pass a bill this year to replace programs that expire in 2002.
Rep. Larry Combest, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee,
said he still hopes to begin House debate next week on legislation approved by
his panel in June. The Texas Republican acknowledged that the revised budget
projections will make it more difficult to move the bill.
The House committees senior Democrat, Charles Stenholm of
Texas, said the farm bill is dead for the year.
The legislation would spend $168 billion over the next 10 years,
including $73.5 billion of the surplus that was expected in the congressional
budget agreement reached in the spring.
Now, All that money has evaporated, said Sen. Tom Harkin,
D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Exactly how were
going to deal with that, nobody knows.
He said he plans to push ahead with writing legislation this
fall.
The nonpartisan Congres-sional Budget Office projected in August
that Social Security surpluses would be drained by $9 billion in the fiscal year
ending Sept. 30 and that lawmakers were within $2 billion of siphoning Social
Security funds next year.
Over the next 10 years, the CBO is forecasting a $3.4 trillion
surplus, including Social Security, down from $5.6 trillion in its May forecast.
Farm-state lawmakers worry that the smaller forecast will force
agricultural programs to compete with other spending priorities of Congress and
the White House, including education and defense, to avoid being seen as using
Social Security funds.
The chairman of the House Budget Committee, Iowa Republican Jim
Nussle, says there still should be plenty of money to go around.
The Senate is unlikely to move a bill of its own before next
year, said Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, senior Republican on the Senate
Agriculture Committee.
It doesnt seem to me to be there, Lugar said of the
$168 billion needed for the House bill. Im not sure it was ever going to
be there.
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