Political games stall new Farm Bill
Delay in passing new bill already affecting farmers
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com
The current Farm Bill is stalled in the U.S. Senate, a situation that leaves farmers in a bind as they prepare for the coming growing season.

CORNYN

Congress is working on the Senate version of the Farm Bill, major legislation which affects not only commodity prices and subsidies, but also food safety and nutrition programs, soil and water conservation, plant inspection and a host of programs that impact more than just agricultural producers, who comprise Wharton County's largest industry.

The House effort was completed months ago. If a farm bill passes the Senate, common ground must be attained before the bill goes to the president who may or may not sign it. Legislation has already been introduced in the House to extend the 2002 Farm Bill by one year.

The Farm Bill received overwhelming support in the Senate Agriculture Committee but has been slow to move through the full Senate, as a result of bi-partisan bickering.

Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Agriculture Committee, says Republicans are keeping the Farm Bill from coming to the floor by threatening to attach amendments ranging from a ban on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants to a repeal of the estate tax.

But Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn spoke with the delegates of the 74th annual Texas Farm Bureau state convention in Waco Sunday and said the biggest obstacle has come at the hands of the Senate majority leadership and its blockade of amendments to the Senate Farm Bill.

Jeff Nunley is executive director of the South Texas Cotton and Grain Association in Victoria, a group that represents grain and cotton farmers in 33 counties in the Coastal Bend, from Fort Bend County south to Kleburg County and out west into the Winter Garden area.

He said the lack of action to pass the Farm Bill comes down to the Senate.

"It's all politics right now," he said. "There's been a lot of political wrangling in the Senate. The Senate Ag Committee passed their version of a farm bill, and the next step is to debate that on the Senate floor and have full Senate vote on it.

"But when they brought it up on the Senate floor, there was wrangling over the number of amendments that would be allowed. Right now, Senate leadership is trying to come up with a way to handle debate and limit amendments."

As of Thursday afternoon, Nunley said he wasn't sure if Senate leaders had worked out a way to limit the number of amendments, which he estimated is more than 200.

"I'm not sure if they arrived at an agreement or not," Nunley said. "It's probably the last piece of major legislation this Senate will have, so people tried to tack on more than 200 amendments to the bill, some to do with farming, others about any number of things.

"Those are the things that happen in Washington, you know."

He said there aren't huge differences in the House and Senate versions of the bill at this point.

"Both maintain most of the structure of our existing farm bill," Nunley said. "The senate has an optional crop revenue program in there.... Both have some reforms on payment limits and those kinds of things, which is actually good because there's been a lot of calls for reform. But the bills in both houses, I think, are something we can live with."

"I think the take-home message is, yes, there's a difference in the two bills, but nothing that can't be overcome," he said. "The main obstacle right now is getting a bill passed through the Senate."

Because the last farm bill expired at the end of September, and no new farm bill has been passed, farmers face uncertain times as they plan ahead.

"It's concerning for our producers because we're planning the 2008 crop year right now and it's difficult for growers to make investment decisions and decisions on their operations without knowing what the long-term situation is going to be," he said. "That's why we're anxious to get this done. It's difficult, for example, to buy a combine without knowing for sure what program you're going to be operating under for the next five years.

"It's already having an effect. It's making growers and bankers very anxious to get something done."

If Congress can't get a farm bill passed and sent to the president by the end of March or early April, Nunley said, it will have to pass a bill renewing the previous version of the legislation.

"Congress would have to extend the existing bill for another year or two years," he said. "That's not an attractive option. Time passing will only make creating a new farm bill even more difficult."