House Farm Bill Highlights

Over the next several days, we will be highlighting House passage of the Farm Bill. Special thanks go out to Tracy Hammond, who summarized the House approved bill -- H.R. 2419 for My Rural America.


The 2007 Farm Bill passed the House with a 231 to 191 vote. The vote was largely along party lines and some 57 votes short of being veto-proof despite the President’s threat to do so. Only 19 House Republicans voted for the bill. Most who did so came from rural districts and were wary of alienating voters who would benefit from the legislation. Further, just 14 Democrats broke ranks and voted against passage.

The administration announced July 25 that it would veto the bill after revelations that the bill would include a tax-related measure that would offset about $4 billion in additional nutrition funding. The administration is concerned also about the subsidy levels in the bill and various other issues. Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) has shrugged off the White House veto threat. "We take it with a grain of salt," Peterson said. "They said they wouldn't sign the 2002 Farm Bill and they did." He also noted that a president has not vetoed a Farm Bill in 40 years. If the president vetoes the bill, that action will not "go down well in farm country." Peterson has stated that he believed the Bush administration has been working against him on other fronts. Democrats likely would have had the veto-proof margin if House leaders did not choose to offset the $4 billion by including the controversial tax provision amending the tax code regarding rates paid by U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies. In fact, House Agriculture Committee ranking member Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) told lawmakers repeatedly that he could vote for the bill only if that language were scratched, and he later made good on his word with a "no" vote on final passage. The bill would bar farmers who have more than $1 million in annual income from collecting government subsidies and eliminate payments to those who earn between $500,000 and $1 million if less than 67 percent of that income comes from farming. Under current law, farmers with income in excess of $2.5 million annually are barred from receiving subsidies, unless 75 percent of their income is agriculture-related. Collin C. Peterson (D-MN), chairman of the Agriculture Committee and sponsor of the bill, said the payment limitations would save $226 million over five years, helping the bill comply with House budget rules. The bill also would increase the maximum in direct payments that an individual farmer could collect to $60,000 a year from $40,000. If a husband and wife both farm the same land and are both eligible, they could collect up to $120,000 a year. The House easily rejected a controversial amendment by a vote of 117 to 309, offered by Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), that would cut subsidies completely and funnel most of that money into conservation programs. The proposal, floated by Kind and Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), would have established farmers' savings accounts and allow for greater conservation and renewable energy spending in lieu of direct payments and subsidies. It would phase out federal farm subsidies over the next several years.

“This Farm Bill is about much more than farms. It is about the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and increasingly the fuel we will use. It assures that we will have a safe, strong food supply now and for years to come,” Chairman Peterson said. “I am proud of the balanced and forward-looking Farm Bill that we have passed supporting conservation, nutrition, rural, renewable energy, labor, and farm country.” Important highlights of the Farm Bill (H.R. 2419) include:

• Investing more than $1.6 billion in priorities to strengthen and support the fruit and vegetable industry in the United States. A new section for Horticulture and Organic Agriculture includes nutrition, research, pest management and trade promotion programs.
• Implementing Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling for fruit, vegetables and meat after years of delay.
• Expanding the USDA Snack Program, which helps schools provide healthy snacks to students during after-school activities to all 50 states and continuing the DOD Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, which provides a variety of fresh produce to schools.
  
• Strengthening and enhancing the food stamp program by reforming benefit rules to improve coverage of food costs and expand access to the program with additional funding support.
• Including key provisions that invest in rural communities nationwide, including economic development programs and access to broadband telecommunication services.
• Providing farmers participating in commodity programs with a choice between traditional price protection and new market-oriented revenue coverage payments.
• Strengthening payment limits to ensure that people making more than $1 million a year (adjusted gross income) can’t collect conservation and farm program payments and closing loopholes that allow people to avoid payment limits by receiving money through multiple business units.
• Extending and making significant new investments in popular conservation programs, including the Conservation Reserve Program, Wetlands Reserve Program, Environmental Quality Incentive Program, Farm and Ranchland Protection Program, and many others.
• Making important new investments in renewable energy research, development and production in rural America.
• Rebalancing loan rates and target prices among commodities, achieving greater regional equity.
• Establishing a new National Agriculture Research Program Office to coordinate the programs and activities of USDA’s research agencies to minimize duplication and maximize coordination at all levels and creates a competitive grants program.
• Protecting and sustaining our nation’s forest resources.

To be continued: Over the next few days, this website will also provide a more detailed summary of the various titles of the Farm Bill. Once this summary is completed, we'll begin our "watch" on the Senate which will be taking up the Farm Bill next.