News Coverage
Congress OKs Farm Bill Raising Subsidies
Legislation sent to president with veto-proof number of votes
Published May 16, 2008
WASHINGTON -- With veto-proof margins, Congress on Thursday sent President Bush a bill boosting farm subsidies and money for food stamps to help the poor deal with rising grocery prices.
Bush has threatened to veto the $290 billion bill, saying it is fiscally irresponsible and too generous to wealthy corporate farmers in a time of record crop prices.
But Congress disagreed, with both chambers passing the measure by well more than the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. The Senate voted 81-15, a day after the House approved it with 318 votes.
"It will be interesting now to see if the president follows through on his threat to veto the bill," said Michael T. Scuse, Delaware secretary of agriculture. "We can all point to some things in the bill that we don't care that much for. When you look at the total bill and what it does overall, it is a very good bill."
Scuse praised efforts to help with rising food costs but questioned some direct payment subsidies, saying they may be "hard to justify" with crop prices near all-time highs.
About two-thirds of the bill would pay for domestic nutrition programs such as food stamps and emergency food aid for the needy. An additional $40 billion is for farm subsidies, while almost $30 billion would go to farmers to idle their land and to other environmental programs.
Keith W. Johnson, a Selbyville grain and swine farmer, supported the bill Thursday.
Competition on global markets and higher input costs for fuel, fertilizer and seed make subsidies necessary, even as farmers are receiving high prices for commodities like soybeans and corn, he said.
Delaware farmers and landowners received $5.48 million in direct payments last year, according to the Environmental Working Group, which tracks those payments.
"Our margins are very thin," Johnson said. "We're experiencing all-time
highs in grain prices. We are also at all-time highs in fertilizer, seed, fuel. All the inputs went up."
Eddie Jestice, president of the Delaware Farm Bureau, agreed, calling the farm bill "cheap food policy."
"The subsidies are there to keep a level supply of food in the U.S. and keep farmers viable so they can continue to provide that food," he said.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer again criticized the bill after
Tuesday's House vote, saying it has the wrong priorities.
"It does not target help for the farmers who really need it, and it
increases the size and cost of government while jeopardizing the future of legitimate farm programs by damaging the credibility of farm bills in general," he said.
Congress has only overridden one veto, on a water projects bill, during
Bush's two terms.
Congressional negotiators met for weeks in an effort to come closer to the White House on the amount of money to be paid to wealthy farmers, one of the chief sticking points with the administration. But drastic cuts to subsidies were not possible, lawmakers said, because of the clout of Southern lawmakers who represent rice and cotton farms that are more expensive to run.
"This bill has reform in it," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "Could we have done more? Perhaps. But if we'd done more we wouldn't have gotten a bill."
The legislation would make small cuts to direct payments that are
distributed to some farmers no matter how much they grow. The farm bill also would eliminate some federal payments to individuals with more than $750,000 in annual farm income, or married farmers who make more than $1.5 million.
Individuals who make more than $500,000 or couples who make more than $1 million jointly in nonfarm income also would not be eligible for subsidies.
Under current law, there is no income limit for farmers receiving subsidies.
