Senate Passes Huge Farm Aid Bill
The Senate approved a massive emergency aid package for America’s struggling farmers yesterday, a record $7.4 billion response to free-falling commodities prices, brutal droughts and intense political pressure.
Congress passed an unprecedented $6 billion rescue package for farmers just last fall, a measure that was touted as an extraordinary one-time fix. But the Senate went even further yesterday, showering cash on farmers of grain, soybeans, livestock, dairy cows, tobacco, cotton and “specialty crops” to compensate for historically depressed prices.
There was a crisis mentality in place on the Senate floor, as farm state members of both parties gave impassioned speeches about an agricultural crisis some believe is the worst since the Great Depression. But by day’s end, bipartisan negotiations over an even larger farm rescue measure fell apart, as many Democrats complained the final Senate package — approved 89 to 8 — was too meager. The $7.4 billion was added to a $68 billion agriculture spending bill approved later by voice vote.
Fiscal conservatives warned that with the August recess approaching, Congress is sending the message that its generosity to farmers knows almost no bounds. The Senate measure would swallow more than half of next year’s projected $14 billion budget surplus. In fact, it has become doubtful that there will even be a surplus, given the amount of emergency spending Congress appears set to approve.
“We’re getting into a bidding contest here because everyone wants to . . . say they helped farmers,” said Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), a budget hawk who argued that Congress should wait to see how the harvest develops before taking “dangerous” action. “We’re spending this surplus as fast as we can spend it.”
Many senators argued that given the crisis, there is no time for delay. Projected farm incomes are down 16.5 percent since 1996. Commodity prices are even lower than they were in the mid-1980s, the era of Farm Aid concerts and tractor convoys on Capitol Hill. In South Dakota, 2,000 farmers have gone under in the last year. In North Dakota, foreclosures are so common that farm auctioneers are being summoned out of retirement.
“People are really hurting,” said Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), the author of the $7.4 billion package. “It’s urgent for us to deliver this assistance as quickly as we can.”
In fact, to solidify support for his plan, Cochran had to add a last-minute $400 million boost in crop insurance payments, after an earlier agreement to include $328 million in payments to tobacco farmers. Republicans had hung together against Democratic proposals for $10.8 billion and then $9.8 billion in overall relief, but an $8.8 billion compromise between Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) drew a handful of GOP votes.
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