Grassley: Congress Has Votes To Override A Farm Bill Veto

Tue. May 13, 2008


Senate Finance ranking member Charles Grassley said today he has signed the farm bill conference report and will work to override a likely presidential veto, predicting that both chambers have enough support for an override. Grassley told Iowa reporters in his weekly teleconference that he is disappointed by the payment limitation provisions in the bill, but said they are better than current law. He also praised the bill's "long list" of other changes, including farm program and tax provisions that he wants enacted. Grassley expects the White House will not push Republicans to sustain the expected veto. If Bush does push support for the veto, cautioned Grassley, he should expect "very weak loyalty in the Congress from his own party." Bush has said that some Republicans in safe seats who represent districts without agriculture might not worry about offending anti-hunger advocates by turning down the bill's $10 billion increase in nutrition programs. Grassley said today that such a scenario is the only way he could envision the White House getting enough House support to sustain a veto.

A coalition of more than 500 farm, conservation, nutrition, consumer and religious groups sent lawmakers a letter today urging them to vote for the farm bill conference report, which is expected to come up in the House and Senate as early as Wednesday. The conference report, which was posted on the agriculture panels' Web sites today, "makes significant farm policy reforms, protects the safety net for all of America's food producers, addresses important infrastructure needs for specialty crops, increases funding to feed our nation's poor, and enhances support for important conservation initiatives," said the coalition, which was organized by the National Farmers Union. The groups that signed the letter ranged from the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Association of Crop Insurers, Independent Community Bankers Association and farm credit institutions to the American Farmland Trust, Pheasants Forever, and food banks around the country.

The Food Research Action Center and America's Second Harvest, a network of food banks, signed the letter but joined the AARP in a separate letter urging passage because the bill boosts food stamp benefits and reauthorizes the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program with additional money. Separately, five groups that oppose the farm bill -- Oxfam America, the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs, the Citizens Against Government Waste, Taxpayers for Common Sense and the National Wildlife Federation -- held a teleconference to urge members to vote against the conference report. They said they oppose the bill because it does not contain strong enough payment limitations. The groups all said they would prefer a one-year extension to the new bill in hopes that a new Congress and president would write a better bill.

by Jerry Hagstrom

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