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Durbin offers alternative to House farm bill

Posted July 24, 2007 11:00 pm

Bruce Rushton

The federal farm subsidy program needs fundamental reform, not just renewal, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters.

Under a bill introduced Wednesday by the Springfield Democrat and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, price supports for commodities such as corn and soybeans would be replaced by a revenue-based program that takes yield into account. The idea is to create a safety net that protects farmers when prices are high but harvests are poor. Subsidies in the current farm bill are based on price targets alone.

"I think some of the answers of the past don't apply today," Durbin said. "Our job today is to make sure farmers can survive a bad year. What Sen. Brown and I are talking about is a new approach."

Such an approach would discourage over-production on marginal farmland that occurs when farmers grow as much as possible to collect subsidies that are based on market prices, the senators said. Unlike a proposal now before the House, the senators said their bill would not cost taxpayers any more than current programs.

Besides eliminating subsidies based on price alone, the senators called for strict limits on subsidies for wealthy producers.

"I think the farm payments should be limited to those in real need," Durbin said. "We know that there are farming operations that have become large businesses that can weather storms. There are clearly some cases that just came out of the news that are embarrassing."

Some of those cases, Durbin said, include payments to dead farmers that are outlined in a report issued earlier this week by the Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress.

The current program allows subsidies to people with adjusted gross incomes as high as $2.5 million. The Bush administration wants to lower that threshold to $200,000. A bill now before the House that is backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would establish a $1 million income cap. Durbin said he favors a $250,000 income limit backed by Sen. Charles Grassley, D-Iowa.

"For us, the payment limitations will be significantly lower than the House," Brown said.

The GAO has found that existing payment limitations are easily bypassed. In an interview with The (Springfield) State Journal-Register, Durbin said he wants subsidies to go to bona fide farmers, not absentee landowners and farmers who figure out ways to skirt limits.

"I'm concerned about the absentee ownership, that so many of our larger farm payments are going to people who haven't seen a farm in generations," Durbin said. "I really want to focus our help to the family farmers and local farmers, and to put a reasonable payment limitation as a means to avoid the embarrassment of past subsidies. What we found in the past is farmers who are skillful at raising crops are also skillful at finding ways around our payment limitations."

Farm bills have traditionally made strange political bedfellows. Food stamp, school lunch and other nutrition programs, for example, are typically wrapped into farm bills so that rural and urban lawmakers will band together to get legislation passed. This year promises to be no different, as the bill unveiled Wednesday by Durbin and Brown is at sharp odds with the House bill backed by Pelosi.

Under fire by environmentalists and fiscal conservatives, the House bill would continue the current system of subsidies based on price alone. Subsidies for some commodities would be increased. About 7,000 farmers would lose subsidies under the $1 million income cap, according to the Department of Agriculture. Barring subsidies for farmers with incomes of $200,000 or more would affect 38,000 people, the department says.

The Bush administration has threatened a veto if the House bill passes.

Brown and Durbin said they're optimistic about their alternative's chances.

"We have a reasonably good shot on (the agriculture) committee and an even better shot on the (Senate) floor," said Brown, who sits on the Senate agriculture committee.

Durbin sounded ready for a fight.

"This will be very interesting on the floor, trust me," he said.

The current farm bill expires at the end of September. Durbin said he doubts a new one will be ready by then.

Bruce Rushton can be reached at (217) 788-1542 or bruce.rushton@sj-r.com.

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