Lugar unveils radical new farm bill

Feedstuffs, October 17, 2001  Online Update

The ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee today unveiled an Administration-backed farm bill with a radical new approach to supporting farm income. Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Ind.) said his bill would end an "interminable cycle" of farm subsidies that has spurred over production and low prices in major row crops since the new deal. The bill would end current farm payments and replace them with a voucher system that farmers could use to insure up to 80% of their average gross farm income. The farm income support would apply to all crops and livestock. It also would double spending for conservation programs and provide bonus payments for farmers who previously established conservation practices that continue to preserve soil and water. Lugar's bill would spend up to $25 billion a year in new funding over the current $9.4 billion-a-year baseline. Lugar he was sympathetic to including a bill by Sen. Pat Roberts (R., Kan.) that would spend $3.7 billion over five years for biosecurity and infrastructure improvements at U.S. Department of Agriculture crop and livestock disease laboratories. Lugar said he has allowed leeway in his spending cap for the inclusion of Roberts' bill. The Lugar proposal is for five years beginning in 2003.

Lugar says proposal will have broad appeal. The politics surrounding the farm bill proposal unveiled by Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Ind.) today are nothing short of remarkable. No commodity groups or major farm organizations were present at the press event to kick off the bill. The general thinking is that the bill is almost sure to be opposed by many commodity groups whose members stand to lose subsidy payments. Interestingly, key support to date for the bill has come from Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group as well as other environmental, conservation and wildlife groups that are enthusiastic about the broad scope of the bill's conservation title. In addition, the Lugar bill, which so far has no cosponsors but which is supported by the Bush Administration, has been endorsed by the National Conference of State Legislators as well as the American Public Human Services Assn. and the Food Research & Action Center, both of which represent the food stamp and nutrition lobby and environmental defense. Lugar said his bill will have broad appeal to a national constituency.