Bill may sow seeds of reform
The Oklahoman, October 25, 2007

WASHINGTON — The Senate Agriculture Committee worked through a five-year farm bill Wednesday that would extend an expensive system of crop support payments, but one influential senator vowed to challenge the subsidies on the Senate floor.

Many of the farm-state senators on the panel defended the $288 billion bill, saying it addresses some of the criticism levied against farm programs.

"There is the beginning of serious reform in this bill,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

But Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the former chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the bill unveiled at the committee meeting on Wednesday continued a farm subsidy system that distorts markets and leaves farmers vulnerable to charges of unfair trade..

"U.S. farm programs cost taxpayers too much money and hurt farmers in the process,” Lugar said.

Alternative program

Lugar has authored an alternative program that would phase out some of the traditional subsidies — available only to the producers of certain crops — and replace them with an expanded insurance program for all farmers.

Knowing the Agriculture Committee would overwhelmingly reject his alternative, Lugar declined to offer it as an amendment at the meeting on Wednesday. Lugar, however, said he would propose his alternative when the farm bill goes to the full Senate, possibly next week.

The committee is expected to finish its work on the farm bill today.

More about the farm bill

The House passed its version of the farm bill in July, though it was opposed by most Republicans because of the last-minute insertion of tax increases.

The House rejected an attempt to drastically cut the current subsidies.

Farm programs have come under fire for years because the large majority of the money goes to a small percentage of wheat, corn, cotton and soybean producers.

The pressure to scuttle the payments has intensified this year because crop prices have been relatively high and stable in recent years.

What else was said

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the bipartisan legislation "will be good for farmers, good for rural communities and good for the environment. It will promote the health, as well as the energy security, of the American people.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the nation has the safest, most abundant and most afford-able food supply in the world.

Like the House bill, the Senate legislation would eliminate the so-called "three-entity rule” that allows farmers to set up different corporations and collect payments from up to three of them.