Sen. Tom Harkin wants his fellow Iowan, President Bush’s new budget director, former Iowa congressman Jim Nussle, to do something about the administration’s threat to veto the farm bill.
“I’m hoping Mr. Nussle will use his influence to try to bring the White House to a more moderation position,” Harkin said today.
That doesn’t seem likely, given it was Nussle’s budget office that issued the threat.
Harkin has been expressing surprise and outrage today that the administration doesn’t like the bill, even though much of the stuff that the administration objects to also was in the House-passed bill, which also is under a veto threat.
Harkin calls Bush a “one-man wrecking crew.”

Some Senate Republicans are pushing to add a new biofuel mandate to the farm bill. That’s one of the issues that’s holding up action on the bill.
The Senate approved a higher mandate – 36 billion gallons by 2022 – in an energy bill earlier this year, but that bill has been stalled in negotiations with the House.
The senior Republican on the Senate Energy Committee, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, is proposing to add the mandate to the farm bill. And he’s got support from South Dakota’s Republican senator, John Thune.
“We need to keep this industry growing in this country,” Thune said today on the Senate floor.
Interestingly, a leading Senate Democrat, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, said today that the energy bill “has now got renewed life” and may start to move.
A spokesman for the Senate Energy Committee, Bill Wicker, says that “something may be shaking free soon.” He says the committee’s chairman, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, wants to keep the biofuel mandate in the energy bill. That’s no surprise. The mandate is key to drawing farm-state votes to an energy bill.

That’s looking like more and more of a possibility. Finishing the bill this year is going to be difficult. The Senate has gone on to other legislation because of a disagreement between Democrats and Republicans over what amendments will be allowed for consideration on the farm bill. The Senate has one more week of work before its Thanksgiving break.
Even when the bill does get out of the Senate it’s certain to take several weeks for the House and Senate negotiators to agree on a final version, a task complicated by the Bush administration’s veto threats.

The White House has released its seven-page statement of administration policy that lays out its objections to the Senate farm bill. It should be posted here. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, predicted today that the Senate would pass the bill with a veto-proof margin. But remember, back in July the House passed its version 231-191, which is well short of the necessary two-thirds margin.

The farm bill is H.R. 2419.

Chuck Conner, the acting agriculture secretary, just announced that the White House is threatening a veto of the Senate farm bill. Chief among the complaints: the tax increases and “budget gimmicks” needed to get the bill on budget. The House-passed bill also is under a veto threat.

Strike immigration from the list of issues that will come up in the Senate farm bill debate.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., announced this afternoon that she won’t try to attach her AgJOBS legislation to the farm bill. AgJOBS would provide legal status to farmworkers who are in the country illegally.
Her office issued a statement saying this:

“Unfortunately, many of our supporters believe they cannot support AgJOBS on the farm bill.  So after numerous meetings and discussions, we have decided not to endanger the broad support for AgJOBS by taking a non-representative vote on the farm bill.”

In other words, Feinstein was going to lose, and that wouldn’t have looked good the next time AgJOBS comes up.

Congressional budget analysts believe the optional new revenue-protection program that’s in the Senate farm bill is going to be popular with farmers who grow corn, wheat and soybeans.
The National Corn Growers Association, which proposed the program, has complained about changes that were made to the plan to appease the crop insurance industry and farmers in Plains states.
But the analysis by the Congressional Budget Office predicts that producers of feed grains as well as wheat and soybeans “would tend to choose” the revenue program if it’s offered as an option.
Cotton, rice and peanut growers would likely stick with the traditional marketing loan and countercyclical payment programs, according to CBO.

The Senate is starting debate on the farm bill this afternoon. But the real action won’t start until tomorrow.

That’s the word today from the Senate Agriculture Committee. The debate may run into the following week.

President Bush’s nominee for agriculture secretary, former North Dakota Gov. Edward Schafer, may not have that much to say about the farm bill before it gets approved by Congress.
He’ll have to be confirmed by the Senate, and he won’t even get a hearing before the agriculture committee until after Thanksgiving at the earliest, says chairman Tom Harkin.
“He won’t be able to do much on the farm bill before …  next year,” Harkin said today.
Not that Harkin is necessarily in a hurry to get Schafer in place at USDA.
Harkin made no secret that he likes working with the acting secretary, Chuck Conner, who was widely expected to get the nomination.
Harkin has demonstated no enthusiasm so far for Schafer.
Could it be that he doesn’t want to take on another North Dakotan right now? After all, Harkin has already been battling with North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad, Schafer’s former brother-in-law, over the farm bill.
“Very perceptive,” Harkin muttered.

Meet our bloggers

RSS 2.0 feeds

RSS Info/ More RSS Feeds