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Something fishy going onBy Seymour Klierly It's been well over three months since the Senate passed the farm bill on Dec. 14. If you recall, 79 senators voted in support of the bill, the most since the 1948 bill. On the other side of the hill, only 231 members of the House of Representatives supported their version. One would think that going into a negotiation, due to their overwhelming support, the Senate would try to move as quickly as possible. Yet this isn't the case. Even though the Senate passed a bill in mid-December, they did not appoint conferees until early February. Even more puzzling is that, according to sources, Senate Chairman Tom Harkin has not once called a meeting for his members. It's been seven weeks and no meeting of the members. Why the delay? In the other chamber, the House still has not appointed conferees. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has yet to publicly justify her reason for the delay. This strategy probably plays better for Chairman Collin Peterson and Ranking Member Bob Goodlatte. This way, they can push their own initiatives without including their committee members. However, such a long delay is still out of the ordinary, especially with the new April 18 deadline. With a few weeks left before the previous March 15 deadline, there was a lot of talk from Chairman Peterson and Harkin that they would be able to finish in time. As that time wound down they changed their tune to just being able to reach a funding agreement by the deadline. When a funding agreement wasn't reached, they said one was eminent and that the new April deadline would be all they needed. Here we are with just over three weeks until the new deadline and still no funding agreement. Last week Chairman Harkin announced that he, Chairman Peterson, Rep. Goodlatte and Sen. Chambliss had reached a funding "framework" agreement, which put roughly $9.5 billion into the nutrition title and $7 billion into new conservation spending. At the same time this "framework" cut the Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus' top priority of a disaster program in half and cut the crop insurance program by over $6 billion to pay for the extra nutrition and conservation funding. Chairman Baucus and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad immediately issued statements that this proposal wouldn't pass. This lack of coordination between chairmen of the same chamber and obviously the same party is unusual and worrisome to the success of a farm bill. I'm not the biggest fan of seafood, and since you can't always tell what dish is being served at a party, I tend to be careful of what I eat. I've learned that if something smells fishy, then it is probably something I won't like. Well something sure smells fishy about this farm bill process. I'm fearful that with all this secrecy and back room dealing, the agriculture community may end up with nothing more than a plate of stinky fish when all is said and done. 3/31/08 Date: 3/26/08
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