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Farm state senators unhappy with a compromise proposed by their House counterparts are expected to offer their own framework for a new farm bill Friday, further complicating already tough negotiations dividing rural Democrats and Republicans alike. The key difference between the House proposal and Senate demands is the future level of funding for farm programs. The House calls for $6 billion in funding over current baseline levels, a figure that Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and powerful lobby groups say is too small. The Bush administration, however, has been reluctant to agree to even the additional $6 billion in funding, and previously had threatened to veto farm bills over excessive spending, a lack of reform to farm spending and the use of tax increases to pay for the additional funds. The Senate has been lobbying for about $12 billion in new funding. Former Rep. Charlie Stenholm (D-Texas), once the top Democrat on Agriculture and now a farm bill lobbyist, said he expected House and Senate negotiators to work through the weekend unless they could agree to a basic deal today. He predicted a deal, however, and noted that the difference in numbers is not that great. “Nine to nine and a half billion to me is a pretty good number,” Stenholm said, suggesting one potential compromise. The Senate move comes after a broad range of commodity groups expressed displeasure with the proposal floated earlier this week by Reps. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the chairman and top Republican on the House agriculture panel. The groups said Thursday in a letter to House and Senate leaders on Agriculture that the proposal “seriously underfunded” farm programs. Those signing the letter included the major trade groups for cotton, corn, rice, sugar, wheat and soybean producers, as well as the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union. “To strain the safety net for American agriculture with a further $6.5 billion cut is excessive,” the letter said. It said providing less than $12.5 billion in additional funding beyond current budget projections will make farm groups pay for spending increases in other parts of the bill, such as conservation and nutrition programs. |
