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A tale of two committees"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Who knew Charles Dickens was referring to the 2007 Senate farm bill debate? Disagreements may not be as heated in the Senate as they were during the French Revolution but Dickens' opening line in A Tale of Two Cities certainly portrays an accurate picture of the process. The Senate Finance Committee, led by Max Baucus of Montana was scheduled to vote on his committee's contribution to the farm bill this week. The "ag-tax package" as it's referred to, contains a number of tax incentives and creates a permanent disaster program to pay producers in times of natural disasters. Whether you agree with the policy or not, Chairman Baucus' leadership style is vastly different from that of Agriculture Committee Chairman Harkin. Chairman Baucus, alongside his Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, sought input from both Democrats and Republicans when writing the bill and provided drafts in advance of the committee meetings. The Finance Committee has a long tradition of operating in a true bipartisan fashion. That's not to say their members always agree on the legislation the committee considers. Rather, the process of meeting regularly on a bipartisan basis, respecting the opinions of their colleagues, and moving legislation forward in a civil and organized manner, all help the members best represent their constituents. On the other side of the coin is the Senate Agriculture Committee led by Tom Harkin of Iowa. This committee first started working on the farm bill well over a year ago when Saxby Chambliss of Georgia was the Chairman and Senator Harkin was the Ranking Member. When Democrats took control of Congress last January, Senator Harkin became Chairman Harkin yet again. (You'll remember he was Ag Chairman during the 2002 farm bill debate as well.) During this time, USDA also came out with a farm bill proposal. Now it's October and Chairman Harkin has yet to release his farm bill. Sure, he's released drafts of titles, but folks on the Hill know that he changes his mind about as often as you and I change socks. Those drafts are old news by now. Furthermore, the Agriculture Committee does not have regularly scheduled bipartisan meetings. In fact, the rumors floating around the halls of the Senate were that it wasn't until last week that Chairman Harkin met with his fellow Democrats to discuss his farm bill ideas. To be fair, those same rumor mills report that Senator Chambliss has held very few Republican meetings as well. Fortunately the near chaos that has become the Senate Agriculture Committee has yet to truly damage farm policy. Congress was able to pass a continuing resolution that keeps current programs running until November 16, 2007. Hopefully by then the Senate will have taken some action that provides more stability to producers trying to make crop decisions. Otherwise, the ending of Dickens' epic may be all too similar to the fate of the farm bill. 10/8/07 Date: 10/3/07 Advertisement
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