Lawmakers have hammered out a final agreement on the Farm Bill, but many insiders are saying that President Bush will veto the effort.
“This bill increases subsidies to farmers at a time of record farm income,” Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said. The negotiators “have done a disservice to taxpayers.”
The speedy reaction from the executive branch put the spotlight on congressional Republicans, many of whom support the legislation and might be hard-pressed to vote to uphold a veto in an election year.
Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (Va.), ranking Republican on the House Agriculture Committee, said that he is “favorably disposed” toward the bipartisan compromise bill, but that lawmakers must decide for themselves whether to vote to override a veto. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated that he will vote against the bill, saying, “I don’t think [it] represents our best effort.”
The package, the product of weeks of closed-door bargaining, is stuffed with plums for key constituencies. Dairy farmers will get as much as $410 million more over 10 years to cover higher feed costs, and negotiators tucked in an annual authorization of $15 million to help “geographically disadvantaged farmers” in Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa and Puerto Rico.
The bill assures growers of basic crops such as wheat, cotton, corn and soybeans $5 billion a year in automatic payments, even if farm and food prices stay at record levels.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn.) acknowledged that the payments are “very hard to explain to our urban colleagues.” But negotiators, under pressure from farm groups, made a token cut of $30 million a year in the current program.
Advocates of the bill stressed that eligibility will be tightened by prohibiting anyone earning more than $500,000 from off-farm sources to participate in the farm programs. Those earning more than $750,000 from farming would also be ineligible for the automatic payments. Currently, only those with more than $2.5 million in income from all sources are ineligible.
The impact of the new eligibility limits would be modest, according to data provided by the Internal Revenue Service. In 2005, it showed 2,025 taxpayers collecting subsidies had farm income above $750,000. The tighter limits will save an estimated $620 million over 10 years, budget officials said.
However, lawmakers in both parties pointed to improvements in the nutrition, conservation and research programs that account for the bulk of the bill’s costs. Eligibility for the food stamp program will be eased by increasing the income deduction allowed to qualify, and the minimum benefit will be raised.