CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
May 21, 2008 – 1:33 p.m.
House to Vote First on Override of Farm Bill Veto
The House is likely to make an effort Wednesday to override President Bush’s veto of the farm bill.
If the House musters the two-thirds majority required for an override, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., said his chamber will vote before it recesses for the Memorial Day break.
“I believe the farm bill will become law and it cannot happen soon enough,” Reid said.
In his veto message to the House, the president focused on the $289 billion measure’s price tag, saying that lawmakers used “budget gimmicks” to hide extra spending.
“At a time of high food prices and record farm income, this bill lacks program reform and fiscal discipline,” Bush wrote.
A veto override appears all but certain. Both chambers voted overwhelmingly last week to adopt the conference report on bill. The House tally was 318-106, and the Senate’s was 81-15. Both totals were well beyond the two-thirds majority needed to enact a bill over the president’s veto.
The legislation, which took Congress nearly a year-and-a-half to write, would reauthorize crop subsidies and conservation programs, tighten income eligibility limits for payments, boost funding for food stamps, expand land-conservation programs and offer new incentives for alternative energy.
“By vetoing this food, conservation and energy bill, the administration has shown a willing disregard for rural America,” said Sen. Kent Conrad , D-N.D., one of the primary negotiators on the farm bill. “It has turned its back on the hungry and undercut American farmers and ranchers.”
A key Republican farm bill writer, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the ranking member on the Agriculture Committee, also fired back at the White House.
“I am deeply disappointed that the president has accepted the imprudent counsel of his advisors and has rejected the farm bill which Congress approved by unprecedented margins,” Chambliss said.
Comments
As a farmer's daughter, I'm appalled that our Dear President is railing against the "record farm income." For decades, my father -- along with virtually every other farmer we know -- has struggled to make a living with the ever-present gamble of weather and grain prices that rivaled those seen in the Great Depression. Now that he's nearing retirement age (that is, if he's even ABLE to retire), it's nice to see this once catastropic agriculture profession turning around and serving up some sort of profit. To be clear, though, despite the hard work and the rising grain prices, my parents still are anything but wealthy. Think $4 gas is a lot for a sedan? Try operating tractors, combines and work trucks -- and then factoring in the sky-high prices associated with working the ground and spraying the crops. Any would-be "windfall profits" are quickly absorbed in outgoing expenses, I assure you. If you're tired of paying near-atmospheric prices for groceries, we need to consider this: if our government doesn't back the farmers, just how much will our food prices climb if these hard-working Americans are forced out of the fields entirely?
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