RENO, Nevada – The U.S. Congress will need to provide a
multibillion-dollar farm bailout if it fails to enact a new farm
subsidy law in time to cover this year’s crops, says the president of
the largest United States farm group.
Although the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to fatten crop
supports by about $5 billion US a year, the Senate was stalemated in
work on a companion bill. Majority leader Tom Daschle said the farm
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bill will be a priority when work resumes Jan. 23.
American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman told reporters
it would be difficult to pass a Senate bill, reconcile it with the
House and have the compromise signed into law before the spring
planting season.
“I believe it will be difficult … for them to finish, to implement a
farm bill for 2002 (crops),” Stallman said as his 5.1 million member
group opened its annual policy-setting convention in Reno.
Lawmakers have provided $30.5 billion in farm rescue packages since
late 1998 to offset low grain prices.
“I would fully expect that to occur, that we would get another”
stop-gap payment, Stallman said.
The farm bureau was in the forefront of a campaign to write a new farm
support law before the end of 2001, replacing the Freedom to Farm law a
year ahead of schedule.
After four years of low prices and little benefit from negotiations to
open foreign markets for U.S. farm exports, “it’s no surprise our
members are saying we need some support,” Stallman said.
He rejected arguments raised by the White House that higher subsidies
would prolong low prices and stimulate overproduction.
“I don’t think that’s the case. It’s a bridge,” he said, to better
times when market prices recover.
Despite the disagreements, Stallman said the farm bureau has good
relations with the administration and Republican senators.
“This (lawmaking) is a process. You’ll have differences initially.”
At the end of December, the White House said it would support $73.5
billion in new farm bill spending – a 78 percent increase from current
levels. The promise defused fears in farm country that funding would be
cut due to the softening economy and demands for increased military and
homeland security spending.
With the Senate deadlocked between Republican and Democratic
approaches, there will have to be an amendment to revise the farm bill
and reach consensus.
Stallman said the Senate needed to delete a provision allowing the
federal government to buy water rights on up to 1.1 million acres.
Dairy supports and conservation issues also needed a resolution, he
said.
Western senators have objected to the water rights proposal as a
subversion of state water law. But environmentalists say it would
reduce fish-versus-farm fights in the arid West.
Water rights may be one of the major issues of debate at the farm
bureau’s convention.
U.S. laws protecting rare plants and animals have elevated “some
little critters” above the needs of farmers and city dwellers, Stallman
said.
