June 4, 2008
Volume 4, Number 23
Farm Bill completion: Ready, set, still no go……. Senate leaders still hope to reach an agreement on a complete new farm bill, but those hopes are on hold. After returning this week, lawmakers were expected to consider HR. 6124, a duplicate of the $307 billion, five-year package that Congress cleared earlier in May. The “redo” was prompted by a clerical error which omitted the trade title from the bill that President Bush vetoed and Congress eventually overrode. The plan was to win quick Senate passage and send it back to the president for another veto, which Congress would then override. However, Republican conservatives, including Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, have placed a hold on the bill. Under Senate rules, lawmakers can "hotline" a bill without debate or amendment as long as there is no objection. If any senator places a hold on the bill, he or she can block it indefinitely, unless there is a cloture vote. Now, the timetable for completion appears to be up in the air. Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) said before the recess that USDA and the U.S. Agency for International Development could keep operating for at least a few weeks without an extension. However, others worry that it could be delayed long enough that spending authority for the international aid programs runs out.
How the 2008 farm bill numbers sort out Even though the 2008 Farm Bill is not “officially” completed, we’ve been getting plenty of questions about whether farmers and consumers are going to be “better off” under the new legislation. The answer, of course, depends on how you define “better off” and which sets of numbers you use to make the comparisons. There are plenty of new and valuable programs in this package, but making “apples to apples” comparisons is not exactly easy. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is the official scorekeeper of projected cost estimates. Officials there have “scored” the 2008 bill at $307 billion during 2008-2012. Those estimates are based on projections relative to the March 2008 federal spending baseline. But both the House and
2008 Farm Bill Percent Share of Total Spending (New + Baseline), 2008-2017
Other, 3% Commodities, 14%
Crop Insurance, 8% Disaster, 1%
Conservation, 9%
Nutrition, 66%
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