Farm Bureau 'extremely disappointed' with farm bill failure

The next opportunity to work on the farm bill will be in late January.

"We are extremely disappointed," Steve Kouplen, Beggs, Oklahoma Farm Bureau president, said. "We had hoped the Senate would recognize the critical needs in rural America."

Oklahoma farmers and ranchers, crippled by consecutive years of drought and low commodity prices, now will have to watch how much new budget numbers, expected in late January, will cut into the farm bill.

"You can throw out the $179 billion we were working with during this last round of farm bill debates," Kouplen said. "The figure probably will be closer to $100 billion, which translates into about a $1.5 billion reduction for Oklahoma agriculture."

Agriculture producers now enter the new year under the veil of the last stage of the dimly-glowing 1996 farm bill, set to expire in 2002. As originally planned, the 1996 bill provides only minimal assistance in its final year, which means producers may have to cut deep into their asset base to keep the farm gates open.

The Farm Bureau leader vowed to continue pressuring Congress to pass a farm bill that will keep family farmers in business.

"They (Congress) have to realize what is happening in farm country today," Kouplen said, "it is not a healthy economic situation." "We cannot survive without a meaningful economic stimulus package."