01/28/09 Senators seek funding alternatives for farm bill

Farm and Ranch January 28, 2008 During a hearing late last week on the nomination of Ed Schafer to be Secretary of Agriculture, North Dakota Democrat Kent Conrad revealed that the Senate Finance Committee was looking for new ways to pay for the farm bill and avoid a threatened presidential veto. Conrad: "There is a very serious effort underway at the direction of the chairman of the committee working with the chairman of the Finance Committee and working with the ranking member, to identify new revenue sources for this bill that would be totally non-controversial. But I just want you to know that in the judgment of this committee there is no way to write this bill and pay for it without some revenue source give the circumstances we confront." In a phone interview late last week, then acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Connor, reiterated the administration's opposition to tax increases in a farm bill as well as what he called budget gimmicks. Connor: "We haven't raised taxes in a farm bill since 1933. We don't think now is a very good time to be going down that course at all. We have encouraged them to step back and say we are not going to raise taxes. We are going to be honest about what this farm bill really costs. If they do that, we believe we can sit down and discuss the reforms we are seeking as part of this bill and come to a rapid conclusion and get this farm bill done." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.