| 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. |