05/09/08 Farm bill or food bill?

Washington Ag May 9, 2008 House and Senate conferees have finally come up with a bi-partisan compromise on a new farm bill that can be sent to both chambers for approval. The legislation contains the same commodity support programs as the 2002 Farm bill but also for the first time includes titles on livestock and specialty crops. At a news conference yesterday, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin was one of several conferees to call the legislation more a food bill than a farm bill. Harkin: "All of the new money, all of the new money that we were able to secure for this farm bill has gone into the nutrition title bringing new investment in nutrition to nearly 10.4 billion dollars." House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson pointed that 73.5 percent of the 300-billion dollar five-year legislation goes to nutrition programs, only about 16 percent to farmer subsidies. Peterson: "There is a ton of money in here for food banks that need it. There are improvements in the Food Stamp program and what better time to make this contribution." To become law Congress is going to have enough votes to override a Presidential veto, because Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer says that's what Bush will do to this bill. I'm Bob Hoff.