Published: May 08, 2008 11:46 pm         

Lawmakers finish farm bill, prepare for veto override

Staff and wire reports



WASHINGTON — Married couples with joint incomes of up to $1.5 million from their farm operation still could qualify for crop subsidies under a five-year, $300 billion farm bill compromise that would boost the Agriculture Department’s food and farm programs.

In some cases, farm couples with incomes totaling $2.5 million — assuming $1 million is from other, non-farm sources — also could qualify. That’s far too rich for the Bush administration, which renewed President Bush’s threat to veto the package as being too generous to wealthy farmers.

As details of the House-Senate compromise emerged Thursday, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer reiterated the veto threat. White House budget director Jim Nussle said the legislation still spends too much, relies on budget gimmicks and “doesn’t have hardly enough reform.”

“For those reasons, it would still be something that the administration would oppose,” Nussle said.

Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee and one of the bill’s negotiators, said Bush has not told him directly he’ll veto the bill, but White House staffers have made it clear to him Bush’s support is unlikely.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a supporter of the bill, said she wished it had gone further in limiting payments to wealthy farmers. Pelosi said she would have “preferred more commodity reform,” referring to scaling back subsidies, but praised increases for nutrition programs, which make up two-thirds of the bill’s cost.

The legislation would:

• Increase nutrition programs, including food stamps and emergency domestic food assistance, by more than $10 billion over 10 years. It also would expand a program to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to schoolchildren.

• Expand subsidies for certain crops, extend dairy programs and increase loan rates for sugar producers. It includes language that calls on the federal government to buy surplus sugar and sell it to ethanol producers, where it would be used in a mixture with corn.

• Make small cuts to direct payments, which are distributed to some producers no matter how much they grow.

• Cut a per-gallon ethanol tax credit that supports blending fuel with the corn-based additive from 51 cents to 45 cents in favor of more money for cellulosic ethanol, which is made from plant matter.

• Add dollars for conservation programs designed to protect farmland.

• Require meats and other fresh foods be labeled with their country of origin.

• Eliminate loopholes that allow farmers to collect subsidies for multiple farm businesses.

• Pay farmers for weather-related farm losses out of a new $3.8 billion disaster assistance fund. Schafer on Thursday criticized the program, which he says questions the government’s investments in existing crop insurance for farmers and discredits farm programs.

Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., a member of the House Agriculture Committee and the conference committee working out details on the legislation, previously has said he does not favor cuts in direct payments, which he said are the single-most important thing to the wheat farmers he represents.

He could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Lucas also has not indicated how he will vote when the legislation comes up for approval.

In recent days, congressional negotiators have come closer to the White House in terms of how much money would be paid to wealthy farmers, one of the biggest sticking points with the Bush administration.

The bill would eliminate some government payments to individuals who make more than $750,000 — or married farmers who make more than $1.5 million — in farm income annually.

Individuals who make more than $500,000, or couples who make more than $1 million jointly, in non-farm income also would be ineligible for subsidies.

Under current law, there is no income limit for farmers, and married couples who make less than one-fourth of their income from farming will not receive subsidies if their joint income exceeds $5 million.

The Bush administration originally proposed a new cap for those who make more than $200,000 in annual gross income but has indicated it could accept a limit of $500,000. As of last week, negotiators were considering a $950,000 income cap on farm income.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., said members were meeting today to coordinate a House override strategy.

Herseth Sandlin said she is optimistic the chamber would approve the bill if Bush vetoes it. But House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio signaled Thursday he would vote against the bill.

“I think, in a time of high commodity prices, to be raising loan limits and target prices just really flies in the face of reality,” he said.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican from the farm state of Nebraska, also criticized the bill.

“The loopholes are still there,” Hagel said. “It’s larded down with pork. It’s just a bad bill.”