November elections may affect farm disaster dollars

House conservatives refuse to accept additional aid

WASHINGTON (AP)--Election-year politics and a flood of federal dollars to the Gulf Coast may hurt drought-stricken farmers who are watching their crops wither as disaster assistance stalls in Congress.

Farm-state lawmakers say it will be a fight to get a $4 billion aid package for farmers and ranchers this year as Congress struggles to pay for Hurricane Katrina recovery and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The odds in Congress could improve, ironically, if the drought worsens.

"I talked to a series of colleagues yesterday, and in every case they reported to me that they have disasters that are deepening in their states," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-ND. "I believe the support for a disaster bill is growing."

Still, Conrad said, it may be a long way off in an election year.

Conrad, one of several senators up for re-election in November, said opponents may try to block a vote on the disaster legislation until after the election. Because farm programs often are popular with voters, the bill would have a better chance of passing before midterm ballots are cast.

"I think if we can get a vote before the election, it will pass," National Farmers Union President Tom Buis said.

Despite opposition from the White House and conservatives worried about the cost, several farm-state Republicans have backed the extra farm dollars.

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-MT, used his position on the Senate Appropriations Committee to add farm aid to spending legislation designed to pay for the wars and the hurricane earlier this year. Burns is locked in a tight Senate race with Democrat Jon Tester.

Conservatives in the House wouldn't accept it, and it was stripped from the final bill.

Burns spokesman Matt Mackowiak says the senator realizes it will now be an "uphill battle with the House in conference," though he will still fight for the money.

"It's not difficult to get it through the Senate," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND, who added the money to the agriculture spending bill.

Mary Kay Thatcher, a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, says Republican House members may be more flexible if the growing drought begins to affect their states.

Wyoming Rep. Barbara Cubin, for example, is a reliable conservative who usually votes against higher spending. But she is pushing for the disaster money because the drought has hurt her state's ranchers and farmers.

"Wyoming unfortunately appears to be heading for another very dry year," she said. "The combination of drought conditions and high energy prices is hitting ag producers hard. This is especially crippling to Wyoming farmers and ranchers who are still trying to recover from losses in previous years."

Thatcher says she is optimistic about the disaster assistance but feels it is less likely that farmers will be paid for the effects of energy costs, an idea that was included in the provision the House rejected. Because many industries have been hit by those costs, she says, it is more difficult for farmers to make that case.

Rick Ostlie, a North Dakota soybean farmer who is the new head of the American Soybean Association, also believes that some assistance is likely.

"It may not be as much as we want, but straight disaster aid eventually will come through," he said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has given farmers some relief in recent days, opening some protected lands as a feed source. But farmers say the situation is dire.

Herman Schumacher, the owner of the Herreid Livestock Auction in drought-stricken Herreid, S.D., says current conditions are "as severe of a situation as I've seen."

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-SD, said he has heard from many producers who are faced with selling off cattle that would otherwise starve without enough feed.

"The price for hay is sky-high, if you can even find it to purchase," Johnson said.

Farmers Union President Buis said he has been meeting with farmers in Colorado and Wyoming in the last week.

"They are harvesting Wheat and they are getting a half a crop at best," Buis said. "They don't understand how the president and the congressional leadership can say it's OK to give disaster assistance to farmers who lost their crops to hurricanes but it's not available for folks who lost it to drought."

Buis and others are pushing to include money for disasters in the six-year farm bill that Congress will consider next year.

"The reality is that you are going to have weather-related losses," he said. "It doesn't make common sense to wait until political winds are strong enough."

Date: 7/21/06

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