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Recession, or the fear of it, is derailing bills that Capitol Hill expected to pass this year.
House and Senate negotiators have found themselves forced to extend the current farm program through April 18 rather than settling their differences on a new five-year farm bill by the end of last week, as hoped.
The farm bill was always going to be a tough fight, but the struggling economy is making it harder to argue for billions of dollars of farm subsidies, particularly when corn and wheat crops are selling for record prices, some farm lobbyists lament.
“The overall collapse of the economy is definitely having an effect on the bill,” said former Rep. Charlie Stenholm (D-Texas), who helped write the last farm bill in 2002.
Other bills are also languishing.
The House Ways and Means Committee has not even considered a bill dealing aggressively with Chinese trade practices because Democrats are wary of moving legislation that could hurt the economy. Legislation imposing new restrictions on carbon emissions may also be held back by congressional leaders for the same reason.
Another big impediment to legislating is the $150 billion economic stimulus package that has already been signed into law. It was not offset with spending cuts or tax increases — moves that would have negated the pump-priming effect — but this means there is less money for other spending if members want to avoid increasing the budget deficit.
“That’s all borrowed money,” said Stenholm, now a senior policy adviser at Olsson Frank Weeda. “How much more money can we borrow? How much more money can the economy support?”
Senate Democrats have wanted to boost farm spending with several new programs, including initiatives for conservation, nutrition and energy. Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) want to create a permanent disaster assistance program at a cost of $5 billion. Overall, the Senate wants to boost farm spending by $10 billion.
While acknowledging that the weak economy makes it harder to move the farm bill, agriculture lobbyists have tailored their case to prevailing circumstances and argue that the farm supports are needed to prevent a collapse in commodity prices. “These good prices won’t last forever,” said Stenholm, whose clients include the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the American Cotton Shippers Association.
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