010630 $74B in Food, Ag Spending Approved

Washington - House budget writers approved $74 billion in spending for food and agriculture programs after sidestepping a fight over price supports for milk.

Rep. James Walsh (R-NY) wanted to use the spending bill to expand a price- setting system now in use in New England but set to expire this fall. Walsh dropped his amendment after House leaders warned lawmakers the issue could derail the entire bill.

“This is not going away. It has to be dealt with,” Walsh said.

The House Appropriations Committee added $150 million to the bill for financially strapped apple growers and approved an amendment intended to kill the pork industry's promotion program, best known for the advertising slogan “The Other White Meat.”

That measure is designed to block the Agriculture Department from implementing a court settlement that would keep the program in operation despite a producer referendum against the program, financed from fees on hogs.

The amendment would “affirm the vote of the producers,” said Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur (news - bio - voting record), the committee's ranking Democrat.

The spending bill will finance operations of the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration, starting Oct. 1.

With the apple subsidies, the bill contains $380 million more than President Bush requested. This year's budget is $76.7 billion, but that includes $3.6 billion in one-year emergency farm assistance.

The milk-pricing system, known as a “compact,” sharply divides lawmakers from major dairy states. It's a pet issue for Vermont's powerful senators, Democrat Pat Leahy and GOP defector Jim Jeffords, both committee chairmen.

The price controls now apply only to milk that's sold in New England. Walsh's amendment would expand the compact to include most of the Northeast and create a similar one in the South.

Farmers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Idaho want the regional controls abolished, saying they encourage overproduction. They have powerful allies of their own, including Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the issue.

Opponents of dairy compacts “would lay down on the tracks” to stop them, said Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX) chairman of the agricultural appropriations subcommittee.

The February settlement in the pork case reversed a Clinton administration decision to kill the USDA-supervised promotion program.

The National Pork Producers Council, which has been partially funded through the fee, had contended the referendum was unfair and persuaded a federal judge in Michigan to block the department from shutting the program down.

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