Kansas leaders discuss future farm bill at State Fair

By Jennifer M. Latzke

Even if the congressional delegates from Kansas don't always see eye to eye on various pieces of legislation, they can at least find some harmony occasionally.

One such occasion was the Kansas Farm Bureau Legislative Leadership Breakfast Sept. 8, when guest speaker Rep. Collin Peterson, D-MN, brought out a guitar and led Senators Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, and Representatives Jerry Moran and Nancy Boyda in singing "Home on the Range."

Of course, the harmony only lasted until the final chorus. And then it was back to the usual political debate over farm bill legislation.

The Kansas delegation, joined by Rep. Peterson, spent their mid-day at the Kansas State Fair at the Farm Bill Forum, at the AT&T Arena. Rep. Peterson is the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, which just sent an approved farm bill to the Senate for debate. He and the rest of the Kansas leaders took questions from the audience and debated the various provisions of the pending 2007 farm bill.

The current debate

The House Ag Committee sent a farm bill to the floor of the House in July that had been unanimously accepted by the committee.

"We've put together a pretty good bill, it's not perfect, but we pulled it off," Peterson said.

Once it left committee and reached the floor, however, amendments were added to the farm bill that Moran disagreed with, and so he voted "no" on the final version, while Boyda voted "yes." The House farm bill was approved, and sent to the Senate for debate. The Senate Ag Committee is also writing its own farm legislation. As the House version stands now, both Sen. Brownback and Sen. Roberts have stated they won't vote for it, and President Bush has threatened a veto to any House-passed form of a farm bill.

Two provisions were the reason for Moran's nay vote and the rest of the Republican misgivings. One was a Boyda-sponsored amendment that changed the way foreign-owned corporations pay taxes. Boyda told the audience it closed a tax loophole that would make domestic businesses more competitive with off-shore businesses. The Republicans, however, call it a tax hike on businesses that are responsible for more than 200,000 Kansas jobs, and a change in tax policy without the benefit of a committee hearing.

"It closed loopholes, and we certainly want for companies to pay if they are earning income here, but it was added on the floor out of committee," Rep. Moran said. "There are 25,000 people here in the state who work for companies affected by that. We ought not change tax policy in the way we did. I'm all for the farm bill, it will be the most important piece of legislation to affect Kansas's economy. People talk about reform, but I say reform is in the eye of the beholder." Moran went on to say that he voted "no" because while the farm bill is for the most part solid as it passed the House Ag Committee, it has a long way to go.

"We have all this talk about the farm bill, but will Congress pass a budget to meet the needs of the farm bill?" Rep. Moran asked.

Rep. Boyda, however, brought up that while only 13 percent of the farm bill is in the commodity title, that hasn't changed from the 2002 bill. And the House bill also increased funding for nutrition programs by $5.8 billion and she wanted Republicans to explain why that wouldn't be worth a vote "yes."

She addressed the tax issue, saying she'd called the companies in question who would have been affected and they told her the change wouldn't harm their Kansas employees.

"It's not the last I'll hear about it," she said.

The second issue is crop insurance and the Democratic reforms made to the program. Sen. Roberts told the audience that a farm bill should strengthen and improve those programs that make American agriculture viable, and that a better funded crop insurance program would mean less dependence on individual disaster programs.

"We ran the numbers and in years previous to the bill over half the time farmers didn't get payments in the toughest years," Sen. Roberts said. "Why have a bill? It's supposed to help when we need it."

Joe Kejr, President of Kansas Wheat, told the legislators his organization would like to see an enhanced direct payment program because it works the best for Kansas farmers and is WTO-compliant. Rep. Peterson said that the House-passed farm bill will end up being WTO-compliant, but that shouldn't be the main concern of any legislation.

"The bill from the House is WTO-compliant, but I've just about had it with the WTO process," he said. "It's about time we started suing some of the other countries, Brazil is just about as bad as we are."

Other issues

Of course, a farm bill encompasses much more than farm programs, and all of the legislators agreed that finding money to spend on food stamp and school lunch programs is an important priority.

"We haven't raised the food stamp income limits and asset tests for over 20 years, and people complained about not doing anything with the minimum wage for 10 years, and we haven't done anything with food stamps for 20 years," Peterson said. He added that damaging vital farm programs such as crop insurance was not the intention and that it would be there in the end.

Sen. Brownback, who is in the midst of his bid for the Republican presidential nomination was back in front of a familiar crowd. He told the audience that he hopes to see a farm bill that will benefit family agriculture in Kansas and offer better energy security for America.

"It's an opportunity to expand agriculture to get a bigger piece of the fuel pie, so that we can get half of our fuel from the Midwest and not the Middle East," he said. "We need a farm bill for farmers. Right now, only about 12 percent of the farm bill goes to farm programs."

David Cross, president of the Kansas Livestock Association, asked the legislators what they would do about the farm labor situation and immigration reform. Peterson said he and others in the legislature recognize that immigration is a key issue to farmers and ranchers and that in the next few weeks there is a full hearing planned in the ag committee to discuss changes to the current program.

"If we don't have change here, we don't have crops harvested and then we have a real problem," he said.

Brownback, who serves on the Senate Judicial Committee said immigration is the toughest issue they'll face, but the country has spoken and they just want the current laws enforced. "We want a legal immigration system, one that deals with a guest worker program," he said.

Rep. Boyda said any immigration bill should provide a Social Security card to identify those who've immigrated legally and are eligible for employment. "It's not just about deporting, but letting people know that we'll enforce our laws," she said.

With all the debate over funding of various programs, one might question whether a farm bill is still needed. The legislators disagreed.

Peterson said he sees the farm bill as putting a solid foundation under farmers who have no control over their markets or the weather.

"We must maintain the safety net," he said. The changes in the renewable fuels market is re-pricing agriculture, and that's a good thing that will bring young people back to the farm, he added.

"Farmers need the program, if we reverse it, we'll see rural decline," Sen. Brownback said. He added he'd like to see a Rural Homesteader Act that offers tax incentives for professionals to move to rural areas, that cuts student loans for those returning to rural America, and other rural incentives. "It's a better track to go than criticizing the farm bill," he said.

Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached by phone at 620-227-1807, or by e-mail at jlatzke@hpj.com.

9/17/07

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