CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
May 14, 2008 – 9:27 p.m.
Farm Bill Likely to Withstand Veto
By Catharine Richert, CQ Staff
The House’s adoption of the farm bill conference report by a margin easily large enough to override an expected veto leaves the legislation with a final hurdle in the Senate before it goes to the White House.
The Senate is expected to clear the report on the bill Thursday, also by a margin large enough to give supporters confidence that President Bush would not be able to use his veto to force a rewrite of it.
Bush has complained that the farm policy rewrite (
But some House Republicans voted for the final version of the bill Wednesday despite similar reservations, after concluding that their farm constituents back it.
One GOP lawmaker who voted against the final version of the bill said that if it comes down to it, he would nevertheless vote to override a veto.
The farm bill debate that began nearly a year and a half ago passed a milestone when the House voted, 318-106, to adopt the conference report. A two-thirds majority would be needed later to override a veto, and the bill’s supporters broke into applause when it became clear they had prevailed by an even larger margin.
Lawmakers say that Bush’s veto threat is falling on deaf ears. The bill’s supporters consider the debate effectively over, given the strong House backing for the conference report and the expectation of a similar result in the Senate.
Said Rep. Rosa DeLauro , D-Conn., “318, it is very sweet.”
As House Agriculture Chairman Collin C. Peterson , D-Minn., and the committee’s top Republican, Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, left the Capitol after Wednesday’s vote, they were applauded by farm lobbyists, congressional aides and lawmakers gathered on a Longworth House Office Building balcony.
Dissenting Views
Earlier in the day, however, the conference report faced a range of objections, and it was unclear whether the House vote would be large enough to indicate a likely veto override.
For example, Robin Hayes , R-N.C., was upset about a provision that would extend trade preferences to Haiti.
Hayes later voted against the conference report, but said he will vote to override if Bush delivers on his veto threats.
Farm Bill Likely to Withstand Veto
Jim Cooper , a fiscally conservative Tennessee Democrat, was also displeased with the outcome. “This year’s farm bill is business as usual,” he said.
Cooper was among those contending that the measure would violate pay-as-you-go rules, which require that new entitlement spending be offset with spending reductions or revenue increases.
Republicans made a similar argument, complaining that a measure billed as a $289 billion package would actually cost more than $300 billion when some budget mechanisms are removed from the calculation.
“They’re violating [the pay-as-you-go rules] in new and creative ways,” said Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Budget Committee. He and other Republicans were upset that Democrats have not adhered to the Congressional Budget Office’s latest “baseline” for the farm bill, or the estimated cost of continuing farm programs under current law.
And Frank D. Lucas , R-Okla. — a member of the farm bill conference committee who chose not to sign its report — objected to provisions intended to trim crop subsides. But he voted for the bill, saying his constituents asked him to.
“Half a loaf is better than no loaf,” Lucas said.
House GOP leaders sent out e-mail messages this week identifying what they described as earmarks in the bill, including $170 million for the salmon industry.
The salmon aid, they complained, was “air-dropped” into the conference report, meaning it was added in conference and was in neither the House nor Senate version of the bill. Republicans said the provision would benefit only California.
But the final version of the farm bill drew support from many urban and suburban House members and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
They were pleased that the measure would provide $10.3 billion in new funding for nutrition programs, which account for about 73 percent of the farm bill’s total.
“It is historic,” said DeLauro, chairwoman of the Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee. She noted that the bill increases for the first time since 1996 and indexes to inflation the minimum standard deduction for food stamp recipients.
The bill’s new funding includes $1 billion for the Snack Program, which helps schools provide healthy snacks to students, and about $1.26 billion for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which helps stock food banks.
The House passed by voice vote Wednesday another one-week extension of the current farm law (PL 107-171) to provide more time for the legislative process to play out with Senate action on the conference report, a likely veto by Bush and House and Senate override attempts.
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