| WASHINGTON -- Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa,
hopes to finish the farm bill in committee this week, and the last-minute
politicking has come down to a political battle among the senators over
how much money to spend on farmers and how to structure the program to
benefit the farmers in their states.
Taking sides
Here's a guide to the battle:
The House passed a farm bill that continues Freedom to Farm payments at
the 2002 level and leaves the marketing loan rates except for soybeans,
which was reduced, and sorghum, which was raised. It also established
countercyclical payment program when prices are low. The House bill
commodity title would cost $48 billion more than the current commodity
title over 10 years. Corn and soybean
lobbyists said the House bill favors wheat, cotton and rice and
convinced Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, to
write a program that is better for them. Harkin's plan had lower Freedom
to Farm payments and higher loan rates than the House, but he plans to
spend only $37 billion on the commodity because he also is planning a
program of conservation payments to farmers and also wants to spend more
money on other programs. The Senate Agriculture Committee has given the
credit, energy, forestry, rural development and research titles more money
than the House. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., told
Harkin Nov. 9 he is worried that the committee has spent so much money on
other parts of the bill that it will be hard to find enough for programs
that go directly to farmers.
"Speaking for my state, we must have more money in the commodity
title," Conrad said, pointing out that the only places left to get
more money would be conservation and nutrition programs that are to be
finalized next week. Conrad said he wanted to "make the point"
that the spending amounts in the other titles "are not agreed
to" until the whole bill is finished.
Harkin told Conrad that recent budget estimates indicate his commodity
title will come closer to the $48 billion in the House-passed bill, but
also said, "I hope we recognize this committee is not just a
commodity committee -- there are hungry people in this country. There are
kids going to bed hungry. It's going to get worse this winter." (This
is both humanitarian and political reality. Harkin knows senators from
states where agriculture isn't important will vote for the bill only if it
provides food stamps to the legal immigrant workers who are getting laid
off at hotels and other establishments hurt by the economic downturn.)
Other Democrats on the committee seem to be siding with Conrad in favor
of more money for commodities. But southerners like Sen. Blanche Lincoln,
D-Ark., want to make sure that more money goes to their states and that
their big cotton and rice growers don't get their subsidies trimmed by
Harkin's plan to change the payment limitations to $100,000 per person
with a Social Security number.
Protecting constituents
The Democrats hold 11 of the 21 seats on the committee, but, with the
Democrats divided, the Republicans have to be taken into consideration.
Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Richard Lugar, R-Ind., has
introduced his own radically different guaranteed income farm support
program that would cut spending on commodities in favor of more on
conservation and nutrition, but hasn't gotten any support within the
committee. Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., who is expected to be in a tough
re-election race next year, could side with Conrad to raise the amount in
the commodity title. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., thinks the difference on
the commodity title with the House is only in the "single
digits."
Once the senators decide how much to spend on the commodity title, they
must decide how the money should be divided among Freedom to Farm
payments, marketing loans, new countercyclical payments and Harkin's
conservation payments. Last week, Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., introduced
the National Farmers Union's bill to raise loan rates.
These issues will be resolved when
every farm group and every senator is convinced they've gotten as much
money as they can. Then the committee must decide whether to support a
national dairy compact plan being developed by Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., and
Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis. Dairy processors hate it.
Casting votes
This week, the vote of every committee member will count. Senate
Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., is trying to help the various
Democrats reach a compromise on the structure of the program. But the
Democrats will also depend on Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., the
lowest-ranking Democrat on the committee.
Wellstone has said he wants both more money for Minnesota farmers and
more for food stamps, but last week, he commented, "We're going to
have a lot of negotiating to do. I'm always looking for the middle
ground."
Because official Washington regards Wellstone as the most leftist of
senators and as running toward the center in his re-election campaign, the
remark was greeted by laughter.
"I just wanted to see if they were awake," Wellstone said.
This week, they -- and we -- all better be. |