House approves Farm Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C.
July 27, 2007 12:33pm

A controversial Farm Bill, offering crop subsidies as well as food stamps, was approved Friday by the U.S. House of Representatives on a vote of 231 to 191.

U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, whose district includes a portion of the Central Valley, says the bill will help many California growers by providing funds to support specialty crop research and expand specialty crop markets.

“I’m proud of this bill and the impact it will make in San Joaquin County and throughout California,” says Mr. McNerney.

The measure would see the federal government spending $1.7 billion for fruit and vegetable programs, which have traditionally been ignored by farm programs.

In addition, the bill allocates money to renewable energy programs by providing $2 billion in loan guarantees to develop refineries for renewable fuels. It also includes funds for production incentives for biodiesel made from agricultural, forest, and plant waste materials.

The Farm Bill faces a possible veto by President George W. Bush if it survives a vote in the Senate.

Critics said the five-year plan does little to curb abuses in subsidies going to huge agribusiness companies.

“Multimillionaires will still be getting subsidies,” says U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a critic of the farm bill, whose package of reforms was rejected by the House.

As proposed, the Farm Bill would encumber a lot of tax money. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would increase direct spending by $5.8 billion over the 2008-2012 period and $17.5 billion over the 2008-2017 period.

“When combined with estimated spending under CBO's baseline projections for those programs, enacting H.R. 2419 would bring total spending for those USDA programs to $286 billion over the 2008-2012 period and $614 billion over the 2008-2017 period,” it says.

Reformers wanted cuts in grain, cotton and soybean payments of $12 billion through 2012, a 30 percent reduction from what the Farm Bill contains.

The Farm Bill was also opposed by the man who is supposed to implement it, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns.