Washington - The Export Enhancement Program, the major U.S. ag export subsidy program, would get $550 million in fiscal 1999 under a plan approved Tuesday by the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture.
EEP was limited to $150 million in the current fiscal year, which ends September 30.
Increased funding comes at the same time the United States has moved firmly against European Union export subsidies on barley.
During a bill-drafting session, the panel rejected Clinton administration requests for multi-year funding of EEP, restrictions on the so-called Step 2 payments intended to spur cotton exports and user fees to pay the cost of federal meat inspection.
Subcommittee chairman Thad Cochran, Mississippi Republican, said most of the administration's budget proposals required approval by other committees before appropriators could incorporate them into the Agriculture Department budget. "We can't assume (the changes)," he told reporters.
"I think it's really an illustration of how we have seen the budget process politicized with gamesmanship," Cochran said.
The fiscal 1999 budget approved by the subcommittee allowed $5.5 billion for export credit guarantees, the same amount as this year, and $90 million for the cost-sharing Market Access Program to develop foreign markets, same amount as this year.
Slightly more than $1 billion would be spent on the PL-480 "Food for Peace" program, about the same as this year but $109 million more than proposed by the Clinton administration. The additional money was put into Title I for concessional and market-building sales of U.S. farm goods.
The panel allowed $200 million for the Environmental Quality Incentive Program, $100 million less than requested. As a money-saving step, it limited the Wetlands Reserve to enrolling a maximum of 146,000 acres, a reduction of 18,000 acres.
No money was allowed for the $100 million a year Fund for Rural America, created in 1996 to aid ag research and rural economic development. Cochran described the fund as "a big slush fund" for the administration to dispense. The Conservation Farm Option also was "zeroed out" of funding.
Overall, the bill would authorize $56.8 billion for USDA, up $7 billion from this year but all due to a $7.6 billion item to reimburse the Commodity Credit Corp for losses.
Cochran said the bill held spending at or near current levels at USDA.
Alaska Republican Ted Stevens, chairman of the full committee, said he was hopeful additional funding could be freed for USDA programs. "I do believe your (sub)committee was shortchanged," Stevens told Cochran during the panel meeting.
Afterward, Cochran said he did not know how much money might become available nor would he discuss where it might be spent.
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