House Committee Moves Toward Farm Bill Passage

July 27, 2001

The House Agriculture Committee moved toward passage of a new 10-year farm bill Thursday night, keeping mostly intact the hybrid farm program structure devised by Chairman Larry Combest (R-TX) and Ranking Minority Member Charles Stenholm (D-TX). Following the lead of this year's budget, the bill will add more than $70 billion over the next decade onto already-expected levels of farm spending.

The committee's bill follows closely the outlines of a concept paper released earlier this month. Recalculation of the bill's cost by Congressional scorekeepers made some additional funds available for marginally higher crop target prices, conservation spending and other items.

Despite more than eight hours of slogging through amendments, the committee made only one major change to Combest and Stenholm's package. Rep. Tom Osborne (R-NE) sponsored a shift of $200 million from the Conservation Reserve Program to research. Osborne's amendment, approved 26-20, will have the effect of capping CRP acreage at less than the planned 40-million-acre level. The exact number of acres involved was to be calculated by staff.

The bill adds significant new funds to conservation, notably the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which will help offset the cost of new environmental regulations on livestock and poultry operations. It also adds money to research, nutrition and rural development programs.

But the centerpiece of the bill is a return to countercyclical "target prices" for major crops, and a new target price for soybeans. Countercyclical payments will be in addition to continued fixed payments under the existing AMTA (Agricultural Market Transition Act) system. In addition, marketing loans will continue, though the soybean loan rate will be lower compared to corn and other commodities.

Chairman Combest encountered widespread skepticism earlier in the year when he said the committee would report a farm bill before August. But as Thursday evening dragged on, it seemed all but certain that he would succeed. The bill will likely be debated on the House floor in September.