Farmers Fight Shift in Subsidies

By Philip Brasher
AP Farm Writer
Sept. 28, 2001

WASHINGTON –– Lobbyists for grain and cotton farmers are trying to stop an effort in Congress to shift billions in crop subsidies into programs that pay farmers for retiring land and improving environmental practices.

An amendment to a farm bill that the House is to take up next week would boost farm conservation spending by $1.9 billion a year over levels set by the legislation.

One of the amendment's chief sponsors, Rep. Ron Kind, said Friday he has at least 190 votes for the measure, within 30 of a majority. Ninety of the House's 431 members remain undecided, he said.

The amendment would ensure that federal farm aid goes "to more farmers in more regions of the country," said Kind, a Wisconsin Democrat who represents a major dairy region.

The bill, approved by the House Agriculture Committee in July, would overhaul food and agricultural programs at a cost of $170 billion over the next 10 years.

The bill would boost conservation spending by $1.6 billion a year, 75 percent over current levels. But environmental groups say that's not enough, and they also oppose a planned increase in payment limits that would allow large livestock operations to qualify for assistance in cleaning up manure problems.

Farm groups opposed to Kind's proposal say they have received assurances from committee aides that the panel's chairman, Larry Combest, R-Texas, will block a final vote on the bill if the amendment passes.

The committee's members "are not going to be put into the position of voting against a farm bill that guts support programs for farmers," said Keith Williams, a spokesman for the panel.

The bill "provided a very balanced and equitable approach. This undoes that balance," said Mary Kay Thatcher, a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau Federation

Groups representing grain, cotton and soybean growers, who have traditionally received most farm subsidies, sent a letter Friday to House members urging defeat of the conservation measure.

"Our members are facing both economic and environmental pressures on their farms, and we support the development and funding of programs to meet these specific needs. However, altering the distribution of funds ... will not assist growers in meeting economic or environmental pressures," the letter said.

Supporters of the conservation proposal say it uses just 15 percent of the bill's crop subsidies.

Some highlights of the proposals:

–The Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to idle environmentally sensitive land, would be expanded from 34 million to 45 million acres, 5 million more than the committee's bill would allow.

–Authorizes retirement of another 3 million acres of grasslands, a million more than the bill.

–Provides up to $500 million annually – 10 times what the bill allows – to farmers near urban areas who pledge not to sell land to developers.