Senate Ag Committee Chairman Tom Harkin has called together the conference committee for a 2:30 PM EST meeting today. His goal -- to smooth our final details on the Farm Bill so that the Bill can be voted on by House and Senate, and forwarded to the President for signature. It's been a long path, but compromise includes additional funding for nutrition, energy and conservation, as well as some cuts to farm subsidies and a reduction in the size of the new disaster relief fund. Overall, this is good news.
Still worrisome is what the President will do. He, of course, is trying to be relevant and may be sticking to his long time commitment to reduce all kinds of government funding for rural programs. You will remember that Agriculture and Transportation are the two most important programs for both rural communities and small business, but beginning when the President first came to office, it has been Agriculture and Transportation that have always received the biggest cuts in Bush Budgets.
In his Rose Garden press conference this AM, the President warned Congress that he wants more changes, and yesterday, Ranking Member Bob Goodlatte made similar noises. In a related statement, last Thursday Chairman Collin Peterson said that if the president vetoes the bill, he should be ready to implement permanent farm law.
We need to remember that strong Farm Bill legislation is key to rural America's economic well-being. One consistent question asked by some national reporters, is "why subsidies" and/or "why" other rural community and farm protections at a time when prices are strong. The answer to that question lies in the hard truth that prices go up and prices go down. If the protections aren't already in place when the prices go down, it will be too late to put then back retroactively.
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