House to Vote First on Override of Farm Bill Veto
“I believe the farm bill will become law and it cannot happen soon enough,” Reid said.
In his veto message to the House, the president focused on the $289 billion measure’s price tag, saying that lawmakers used “budget gimmicks” to hide extra spending.
“At a time of high food prices and record farm income, this bill lacks program reform and fiscal discipline,” Bush wrote.
A veto override appears all but certain. Both chambers voted overwhelmingly last week to adopt the conference report on bill. The House tally was 318-106, and the Senate’s was 81-15. Both totals were well beyond the two-thirds majority needed to enact a bill over the president’s veto.
The legislation, which took Congress nearly a year-and-a-half to write, would reauthorize crop subsidies and conservation programs, tighten income eligibility limits for payments, boost funding for food stamps, expand land-conservation programs and offer new incentives for alternative energy.
“By vetoing this food, conservation and energy bill, the administration has shown a willing disregard for rural America,” said Sen. Kent Conrad , D-N.D., one of the primary negotiators on the farm bill. “It has turned its back on the hungry and undercut American farmers and ranchers.”
A key Republican farm bill writer, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the ranking member on the Agriculture Committee, also fired back at the White House.
“I am deeply disappointed that the president has accepted the imprudent counsel of his advisors and has rejected the farm bill which Congress approved by unprecedented margins,” Chambliss said.
