Administration Makes It Plain: Pass Cochran-Roberts

December 6, 2001

The Bush administration doesn't want either the House-passed farm bill or the bill reported from the Senate Agriculture Committee. It prefers a bill proposed by Sens. Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Pat Roberts (R-KS). Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Cochran and Roberts told farm broadcasters Wednesday the bill's features make it the preferable measure that President Bush will sign.

Cochran-Roberts is a five-year bill that extends fixed payments to farmers but does not propose a target price system as do both the House and Senate committee bills. "Our alternative is better," Roberts said flatly. "It's more market oriented and trade friendly."

Another feature of the bill is a type of savings account under which USDA would match up to $10,000 of a farmer's contributions to his or her account. The money could be used to tide a farm family over from a year of low prices and income to a more stable income.

The full Senate began debating a farm bill Wednesday, and Cochran and Roberts were expected to offer their bill as an amendment in the form of a substitute to the committee bill. However, with the Senate in control of Democrats, and the committee bill supported by Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), it was unclear whether Cochran and Roberts could muster the votes needed for passage.

That may mean the Senate will approve some version close to the committee bill, sending to a conference committee two bills for reconciliation, neither of which Bush likes. However, Veneman gave no indication Wednesday that Bush would veto a bill with target prices included.

Veneman issued a statement Wednesday in which she said the Senate committee bill "would expand the government's role in agriculture in a way that threatens the financial health of the farm sector, compromises our efforts to expand our markets abroad and harms American consumers, especially those with lower incomes."