New Farm Bill Cruises To Veto-Proof Passage In Senate

Thu. May 15, 2008


The Senate today cleared the farm bill conference report, 81-15 -- a veto-proof majority topping the 79 votes that the initial Senate version got in December. Democrats voted for the bill by a 45-2 margin, while Republicans supported it 35-13. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont provided the other aye vote. The House also cleared the legislation overwhelmingly, 318-106, a day earlier. House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson said Wednesday he expects the bill to go Tuesday to the White House, where a veto is expected, and said he hopes the override vote can be held before Congress adjourns for the Memorial Day recess.

The $289 billion, five-year measure includes a $10 billion increase in domestic and international nutrition programs over 10 years. The bill also reauthorizes the food stamp program and the basic farm programs as well as a large tax package that reduces current agricultural tax breaks and creates new ones. In addition, it simplifies a measure in the 2002 farm bill that requires country-of-origin labeling at the final point of retail sale for several meats, fruits and vegetables and other products. The bill also reauthorizes the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and contains a measure to close what has become known as the "Enron loophole" that was allegedly used to manipulate energy prices. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said today the provision would give the CFTC authority over all electronic energy trading involved in energy price discovery.

Senate Budget ranking member Judd Gregg objected to the bill's financing and tried to raise a point of order against it. But Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, one of the key authors of the bill, waived the point of order. Senate Agriculture ranking member Saxby Chambliss said he understood Gregg's point that the bill will spend more than CBO is currently projecting but argued it is impossible to predict farm bill spending because no one can accurately predict prices. Several farm bill programs are triggered by low commodity prices.

Both Democratic and Republican Senate farm leaders praised the bill as an example of bipartisan cooperation that can still be achieved in Washington. Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who has a tough re-election race, all appealed to Bush to abandon his plan to veto the bill. Chambliss said he was "disappointed by the comments coming out of the White House."

Former Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, who made the Bush administration's initial farm bill proposal and is now a candidate for the Senate in Nebraska, broke with the administration over its opposition to the bill today and said that if he were in the Senate he would vote for the bill. "I would be a reluctant yes vote for the new farm bill because I feel that our agricultural producers should not be without a farm bill any longer," Johanns said in an e-mail. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., a former Agriculture chairman, voted against the bill, saying that it cost too much and did not include reform.

by Jerry Hagstrom

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