June 24, 1999

Senate Democrats are reviving their arguments that the farm law needs to be changed, but they aren't giving up on their claim that emergency assistance for farmers is needed this year. Senators and farmers appeared Wednesday at a special event sponsored by the Senate Democratic Policy committee.

The problem with another $6 billion or so in direct assistance for farmers is that it probably will have to be made on an emergency basis, if at all. But it's too early to declare an emergency, because the 1999 crops haven't been harvested yet, and price levels for the 1999-2000 marketing year aren't known. The only other option would be to find an "offset" for the spending - raising revenue or reducing the federal budget in some other category to allow farm relief, a highly unlikely option.

Republicans so far have managed to turn back Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) in his attempts to get another massive batch of assistance to farmers and said they prefer to wait until later in the year to decide if more money really is needed.

"It is obvious that additional emergency assistance to help farm families and rural communities is urgently needed again this year," Harkin said Wednesday. "But such emergency assistance will only address the short term. We must face up to the fact that our nation's farm and food policies are broken."

Much the same was reflected in comments from Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (SD). "We can continue to pass emergency help for farmers and ranchers, but, in the end, things will not get better until we change the direction of our farm policies," he said. Those changes should include crop insurance reform, requiring meat packers to report prices and country-of-origin meat labeling.

Several farmers and rural community officials testified at the hearing on the hardships farmers face from low commodity prices.