Glickman Gives Panel No Numbers

September 16, 1999

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman Wednesday gave the House Agriculture Committee a broad outline of what the Clinton Administration wants in farm aid this year but refused to put a price tag on it. That rankled committee Chairman Larry Combest (R-TX), who has been trying for months to get numbers out of Glickman.

Glickman told the committee the administration supports emergency livestock assistance, emergency farmer income support, payments to small and medium sized hog operations and a single year disaster assistance program. But he gave no cost estimates. Disaster assistance is expected to cost between $800 million and $1.2 billion. He also expressed support for the cotton Step 2 funding through 2002, when the current farm law expires.

One reason the administration is reluctant to put actual projected costs to emergency aid is that the money comes from the budget surplus expected to develop in fiscal 2000. But other budget items are doing battle for a portion of the $14 billion, too, and if the $14 billion is exceeded, the extra money will have to come from the Social Security trust fund. Neither Republicans nor Democrats want to be blamed for dipping into Social Security. Clinton has said he will not allow Social Security to be touched, and Glickman reiterated that position to the committee.

"I can't help but be disappointed in the Secretary's lack of specifics for addressing the farm crisis," said Combest. "Congress put the administration on notice five months ago that we would be looking into emergency aid and with their vast resources, they still haven't submitted a concrete plan with funding levels and delivery options. With harvest approaching, it seems to me that Congress is going to have to go it alone for the second year in a row."