07/18/07 House leadership pushes payment limit reform

Farm and Ranch July 18, 2007 House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson had not wanted to include any changes in payment limitations in his chairman's mark for the 2007 Farm Bill. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in the Democratic leadership want payment limit changes so they can say the new farm bill contains reforms. So when the House Ag Committee met Tuesday to begin mark up, Peterson announced his proposal now includes payment limit changes. Peterson: "For the first time in this Farm Bill we will have tougher eligibility requirements for farm program benefits based on a hard adjusted gross income cap of one million dollars. We will eliminate the three entity rule requiring direct attribution of payments. These limits will apply to conservation programs as well as to farm program payments." Peterson described those payment limit changes as a sound compromise that no one is satisfied with but which represent real reform. Tuesday's session of the House Ag Committee was limited to opening statements by committee members. Ranking Republican Bob Goodlatte of Virginia warned that the funding must be made public for spending proposed in the bill. He said without firm funding required under the pay-as-you-go rules of the House, the bill has the potential "to explode on the floor" from an onslaught of unfriendly amendments. The Committee begins dealing with amendments to the chairman's mark today. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.