Farm bill concerns S.D. delegation
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., declined to share details of his new farm bill Wednesday, meant to be a compromise between House and Senate versions passed last year. He said it will displease everyone.
The proposal, which he pitched as a starting point for negotiations, eliminates the $5 billion in disaster aid funding that's in the Senate version and would reduce CRP from 39 million acres to 32 million acres, according to a bill outline. The replacement bill also would extend the farm bill's duration to 10 years instead of the usual five.
Peterson's proposal, worked out with the White House, would cost about $6 billion more than the $286 billion price tag lawmakers tried to stick with when they began working on the new five-year farm bill. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the House bill came in $5.9 billion over the $286 billion baseline. The Senate bill was $13.3 billion over.
President Bush has vowed to veto both bills because, he said, they use budget gimmicks and tax increases to mask additional spending and don't go far enough to reform farm subsidy programs.
"(The Senate bill) is so far out of whack that during the discussion with the White House," Peterson said, "we came to the conclusion it was not possible to work off the Senate bill."
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., a member of the Senate agriculture committee, criticized House Democrats for negotiating with the Bush administration before talking to senators.
"(Peterson's proposal) is getting a very lukewarm reception in the Senate," Thune said. "They've been operating kind of as free agents over there, and it's not enhancing our prospects of getting a bill passed. It's really important that the House begin to dialogue and discuss these issues directly with the Senate and get some of these differences hammered out."
Thune said senators on both sides of the aisle still support the disaster aid program and will fight to keep it in the final bill.
Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., said he's glad discussions on reconciling the two farm bills are moving forward.
"(However) I'm concerned that this proposal shifts us farther away from what South Dakota's agriculture communities need," Johnson said in a statement. "We are, however, at the beginning of these negotiations."
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., has not given up on disaster assistance and will do everything she can to get it into the final bill, her spokesman, Russ Levsen said. Herseth Sandlin is a member of the House Agriculture Committee.
"It's clear that there are more worthy programs out there than there are dollars to fund them," Levsen said. "And with a White House veto threat, we know that we're not going to get absolutely everything we want."
