020342 Farm Program Changes Planned

Washington - Congressional negotiators hope to work out a final agreement next week on an overhaul of farm programs that could take effect for this year's crops.

Aides to members of a House-Senate conference committee expected to work through the weekend to sort through a number of contentious issues, including a Senate-passed ban on meatpacker ownership of cattle and hogs and new restrictions subsidies individual farmers can collect.

The lawmakers "are going to make a run at getting it completed," Seth Boffeli, a spokesman for the lead Senate negotiator, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said.

His House counterpart, Rep. Larry Combest, R-Texas, said lawmakers had to reach agreement on the final bill by Tuesday if they were to have any chance of getting it approved by the House and Senate before lawmakers leave for a two-week recess.

The negotiations are "moving in a very positive direction, still with a lot of work to be done," said Combest spokesman Keith Williams.

But the negotiators had yet to agree on spending allocations for different sections of the legislation, including those funding commodity subsidies, conservation programs and food stamps.

The House passed a farm bill last October, and the Senate approved a longer, more expensive measure in February. Existing farm programs are scheduled to expire this fall.

The Bush administration, meanwhile, is urging the negotiators to include in the final bill a Senate-passed provision that would allow noncitizens to receive food stamps if they have lived in the country at least five years. Immigrants were cut off of the program in the 1996 welfare of federal welfare programs.

In a letter to the negotiators, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman also said the administration "strongly objects" to another Senate provision allowing private financing for food sales to Cuba. Under a 2000 law, the government and U.S. banks are barred from lending money to Cuba for buying U.S. agricultural products.

The letter was silent on the meatpacker ban and the $275,000-per-farm payment limit.

Seeking to put Harkin on the spot, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, threatened Friday to oppose the final farm bill if it significantly weakens the Senate-passed restrictions on meatpackers, a hot issue among hog producers in Iowa and neighboring states.

"Please use your leadership position and support the wishes of our constituency," Grassley wrote Harkin, who is up for re-election in Iowa this year.

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