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Traditionally, lawmakers are more inclined to fast-track the farm bill when pressure from around the country compels them to put aside political differences.
Often this has the added benefit of presenting opportunities for those lobbyists eager to win favors for their clients and the lawmakers hoping to burnish their legacies.
But this year, as Minnesota Democrat Collin Peterson, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, attempts to bring Democrats and Republicans together around a new farm policy, there’s less of an outcry beyond Washington.
Commodity prices — fueled both by an ethanol boom and growing demand for food in China and India — make it unclear how much desire there is for a new bill.
“I think pressure is coming from inside the Beltway,” said Brent Gattis, a lobbyist for Olsson, Frank and Weeda who doesn’t hear overwhelming cries for a new farm bill elsewhere.
Whether the climate is ripe or not, Congress appears to be moving forward. Both chambers have passed bills and a difficult conference is expected to begin this week. In the next few weeks, members will have to decide how much they are willing to concede to both President Bush and other members — while at the same time facing a wave of demands from lobbyists — in order to complete a new farm law.
It’s already off to a tough start. President Bush has threatened to veto either measure because of excessive spending and what he views as tax increases in the House bill. If there is no new farm bill this year, both sides will try to blame the other this fall, but if there is no strong demand for a new farm bill it will be hard to make the attacks stick.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is planning to encourage candidates, especially those in rural districts, to make the farm bill a campaign theme if this year’s debate ends with Bush’s veto.
“I think you will have Republicans taking the blame. It is [Bush’s] pen that is signing the veto,” one Democratic strategist said.
Over the weekend, however, Peterson gave the strongest signal yet that he intends to work out an acceptable compromise and win bipartisan approval of a farm bill, even though a veto could play well for Democrats in November.
Peterson and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (Va.), the top Republican lawmaker on the Agriculture Committee, released an open letter to the committee that said, “We do not believe that any strategy involving a veto would be good for the country.”
The letter said the two were trying to find a “starting place” for talks with the Senate that would allow them to craft a final bill that could pass both chambers and be signed by Bush.
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