DailyViews: Editorial

’08 farm bill deserves OK

A bill to govern the federal farm and nutritional programs has been cobbled together, more than half a year late, by leaders on the Senate-House Farm Bill Conference Committee.

And while every reform that President Bush has demanded hasn’t been met by lawmakers, they have made significant movement in the president’s direction. Now, Bush should show some movement himself — accept that he will never get what he considers to be a “perfect” farm and bill, pick up his pen and sign the legislation.

In an ironic twist, Bush is accusing lawmakers of engaging in “fuzzy math” to make the financial costs of the massive $300 billion bill work out. In a conference call with Georgia reporters Thursday, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Moultrie, said the intention of leadership was for the cost of the bill to be $10 billion above the baseline, and defended the use of timing shifts when payments such as crop insurance could be made that save a “significant amount of money.”

“The president has said that because we’re using timing shifts, we have gone above $10 billion,” Chambliss said. “The fact is, we disagree about that. We use timing shifts in every major piece of legislation that we pass and that he signs into law. This bill will score at $10 billion above the baseline by both OMB (Office of Management and Budget) and CBO (Congressional Budget Office), so, from a spending standpoint, we think we’ve addressed his concern.”

Chambliss said bill writers have addressed each of the nine concerns Bush outlined in a letter to Congress in late February.

“We have not given the president exactly what he wanted, but we have moved very much in a direction toward the president,” the senator said. “For example on payment limits, they want a hard cap at no more than $500,000. We’ve done that for non-farmers. we don’t have a $500,000 hard cap for farmers, but we moved in his direction.”

The bill sets the income limits for farmers to participate in the program at $750,000, or $1.5 million for a couple if the farmer’s spouse is also actively engaged in the farm business.

That’s down from the current level of $2.5 million, which, as Chambliss says, is significant, but not enough to satisfy detractors of the legislation.

The fact is, only 14 percent of the $300 million in this five-year bill will find its way to farmers. The farm bill is actually a food bill, with nearly two-thirds of the cost of the package going to fund nutritional programs. There is $10 billion in new spending in that area alone.

Meanwhile, there are also provisions encouraging bioenergy sources and uses besides corn, and grants and loans for developing needed renewable energy sources. The bill includes $4 billion in new funding for conservation programs.

There is enough progress in the legislation to merit its passage. The week-to-week emergency extension of the 2002 farm bill is no way to manage programs that are so vital to the national interests of Americans.

This farm legislation is not perfect, but few things that come out of Washington are. Congress should pass this legislation as quickly as possible and President Bush should sign it.

The Albany Herald Editorial Board

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