Schafer disparages, senators defend new farm bill
Friday, May 9, 2008, 3:28 PM
by Peter Shinn
USDA said Friday in its World Agricultural Supply Demand Estimates that it expects continued strong prices for wheat, corn and soybeans. USDA forecast average wheat prices this year to range between $6.60 and $8.10 a bushel, average corn prices between $5 and $6 a bushel and average soybean prices between $10.50 and $12 a bushel.
That is one reason U.S. Ag Secretary Ed Schafer said President Bush is determined to veto the 2008 farm bill. During a teleconference with reporters Friday morning, Schafer told Brownfield the new farm bill provides a weaker safety net than the 2002 edition and gives handouts to wealthy farmers when they’re needed the least.
"At a time when we're seeing here, you know, record commodity prices, we don't believe it's time to raise subsidy levels," Schafer said.
All major farm-state lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, have backed the new farm bill. And Schafer conceded Congress may well override the President’s veto.
"I do know that we have an uphill battle here to sustain a veto," admitted Schafer.
Schafer went even further. He suggested the President's veto may hurt farm-state Republicans in the November elections.
"I think that's a possibility," Schafer said. "There are, you know, always factors on the national scene that affect local races."
But Schafer added that the new farm bill is so bad, wastes so much taxpayer money and contains so few reforms the President is willing to pay a political price in order to veto the measure. That determination to veto the new farm bill comes despite the fact that it is strongly supported by the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers Union, American Farmland Trust and other mainstream agricultural groups.
And key farm-state lawmakers wasted no time in addressing the specific complaints voiced by Schafer. During a teleconference just minutes after Schafer's, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Senate Ag Committee Chairman Tom Harkin of Iowa defended the new farm bill, which Congress is expected to vote on as soon as Wednesday.
Among other things, Schafer claimed the measure spends $20 billion over the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) baseline for farm programs. Conrad took on that allegation head on, and addressed many of Schafer's other complaints as well.
Conrad noted that spending on all commodity programs makes up just one quarter of one percent of the total federal budget under the new farm bill and that nearly three-quarters of the bill’s total cost is spent on nutrition programs for school children and the needy. Conrad also pointed out the CBO has scored the farm bill at just $10 billion dollars over budget baseline and that the extra cost is completely offset by other policy changes included in the bill.
Conrad also emphasized that most of the safety-net provisions of the new farm bill, including marketing loans, the counter-cyclical program and the new permanent ag disaster aid program won’t go to farmers unless current high prices collapse or there’s a production-related calamity. On the other hand, Conrad noted Congress had cut direct payments, which go to eligible owners of farm program acres under any conditions, by $300 million while the Bush administration in its farm bill proposal had wanted to increase those payments by billions.
"In fact, they are the ones that propose increases in spending at a time when there are record prices," Conrad said, "increases in spending for commodities through a $5.5. billion increase in direct payments."
Harkin, for his part, ran down the long list of initiatives included in the farm bill, from increased spending on cellulosic ethanol development to greatly expanded conservation programs. And he expressed disappointment in President Bush’s refusal to sign the measure.
"I just thought maybe the President would say, well, it didn't meet all of his expectations, but we came a long way and the good in this bill outweighs whatever bad he may see," Harkin said. "But it looks like he's got his eye on the hole and not on the donut."
Congress is expected to pass the farm bill later this week. President Bush can sign it, veto it as he’s promised or let it pass into law without his signature after 10 days.