Time to put this farm bill out of its misery

By Larry Dreiling

Travis Coates had to do it with Old Yeller when the rabid wolf bit his dog.

It's time Congress "rose to manhood" and put this dog called the 2007, or 2008, farm bill debate out back and put a bullet to it.

Just end it now. Save farm country the pain of watching this debate go on any further.

Let's just have an extension of the current bill and have it over with until a new president and Congress takes office next year.

As it is now, the farm bill would spend a little under $11 billion more than the budget baseline allows, ensuring a presidential veto. That's already $855 million more than prior iterations of the legislation.

Add-ons abound on this old dog, including nearly $10 billion in new funding for nutrition programs and $4 billion for conservation programs. Cutting the acreage cap on the Conservation Reserve Program would cover any offsets.

A reduction in CRP from 39.2 million acres to 32 million acres, you say? Frankly, that dog won't hunt. It won't hunt to producers, certainly. And it sure won't hunt to big city folks who've only now had an altar call to the concept that the carbon sinking attributes of CRP is one of the best ways to reduce global warming.

Throw in reductions in crop insurance funding and you've got a dog that's got some serious symptoms.

It doesn't help matters any that it looks like the Senate has not just one, but two committees (Agriculture and Finance) trying to ramrod this thing and you can see it needs to go before he gets any sicker.

What's worse, conferees from the House haven't even been officially appointed, leaving Chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Ranking Minority Member Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and their staffs to do any negotiating.

This indicates a lack of real leadership on the part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader John Boehner (himself a former House aggie who worked with then chair Pat Roberts to craft the 1996 farm bill) to be brave enough to share in the blame for this mess their side of the Hill has found itself.

Blame the White House, too, for insisting on further cuts in farm spending when the Bush administration knows full well that 2002 saw lower producer payments because that hash of a bill, in essence, denied those counter-cyclical payments to producers whose crops failed due to drought.

In my visits with members of Congress and their staffs over the years, I've noticed a fatigue factor that settles in with two-term presidents.

Even Republicans like Rep. Jerry Moran, R-KS, knew that crafting a new farm bill in this environment would be slow and painful.

As time went by, Moran had this dog in his sights way back last November upon introducing legislation to extend the current farm bill for a full year.

"It is unacceptable that we are nearing the end of the year without a farm bill to take home to our farmers and ranchers," Moran said last November. "Our producers face the uncertainty of making next year's crop decisions without knowing what type of safety net will be available in the coming year.

"Securing future financing is exceptionally difficult without certainty of farm programs. Our farmers and ranchers are already burdened with many responsibilities. They should not have to worry about whether Congress can complete a farm bill. I would have expected the Senate Democratic leadership to understand the policy and political implications of their unwillingness to act."

Maybe this is a little too late for an "attaboy," but Moran's got it right here, and I'd add a few in the House to the list of those lacking in understanding about this piddling about in trying to move a farm bill forward.

Let's just call it a session, Congress, for this farm bill. Take Old Yeller out back; do what you have to do and bury him.

Then go home. Sure, since nothing was really accomplished, you can blame each other. Blame the White House. Whatever.

Just come back in January with a new bunch of people on the Hill and a new president and a new attitude toward working for the betterment of rural America.

Then give us a farm bill to which we can all say, "This dog'll hunt!"

Larry Dreiling can be reached by phone at 785-628-1117 or by e-mail at ldreiling@aol.com.

4/14/08
4 Star NE\4-B

Date: 4/9/08

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