011222 GOP Refuses to Limit Farm Debate

Washington - Senate Republicans refused to limit debate on a Democratic-authored farm bill, all but killing prospects for enacting new farm subsidies this year.

Democrats, who have the backing of farm groups in pushing for quick passage of their bill, accused Republicans of delaying the legislation until next year, when shrinking federal revenues may force lawmakers to cut back future farm spending.

“We believe there's an urgency here, and they don't,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND).

The Senate failed to limit debate of the bill, falling seven votes short of the 60 necessary. The vote was 53-45.

Mary Kay Thatcher, a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, suggested Republicans could pay a political price for the vote. “Virtually every farm group is saying this is a 'gotta-do' situation,” she said.

Republicans say the legislation, which would reauthorize farm programs through 2006, would stimulate excess production and hold down commodity prices. The bill would increase crop subsidies as much as 20 percent.

“All the way through this has been a ramrod deal,” said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said “more time was needed, not less” to debate the Democratic bill.

Republicans said there wasn't enough time for Congress to reach agreement on new farm policy yet this year, even if the Senate quickly approved the Democratic measure. The bill differs significantly from one the House passed in October. The last time Congress rewrote farm policy, in 1996, negotiators took several weeks to work out an agreement on the final version.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, conceded that Congress was unlikely to finish work on the legislation before January or February. “But I never say 'No.' I never give up,” he said.

The House legislation provides lower crop subsidies than the Senate Democratic measure, but gives farms more money in fixed payments. The Bush administration opposes both bills, which would increase farm spending about $73.5 billion over the next 10 years. The limit, set in a congressional budget agreement, is an increase of about 75 percent.

Existing farm programs don't expire until next fall, but agricultural interests are worried that money for their subsidies will shrink after a new budget forecast is issued in January.

Sen. Tim Hutchison, an Arkansas Republican who faces a tough re- election race in 2002, sided with Democrats in voting to limit debate on the bill, as did three northeastern GOP senators, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Maine's Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

Meanwhile Thursday, the Senate waded through some of the dozens of amendments that could be proposed to the bill.

The Senate agreed, 51-46, to ban most meatpackers from owning their own livestock, a restriction intended to prevent processors from controlling supplies of cattle and hogs. The ban proposed by Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., would not apply to processors owned by farmers.

The Senate narrowly rejected a a proposal by Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., to allow the White House to reverse decisions by government agencies that might harm farmers. Environmentalists said the measure could make it impossible to enforce the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and other laws.

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