Kind Loses Battle on Farm Bill
By Reid Magney, La Crosse Tribune, Wis.
Jul. 28–Despite having the House reject his plan to reform the farm bill, U.S. Rep. Ron Kind said Friday he’s still hopeful for change in the final bill.
The La Crosse Democrat said he’s talked with key ag state senators, including Iowa’s Tom Harkin, about his Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment, which failed on a vote of 309-117 late Thursday. The House passed the Farm Bill on Friday afternoon, and Kind was among 14 Democrats voting against it.
The Kind amendment, offered with conservative Republican Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, would have reduced farm subsidies in favor of conservation, aid for specialty crops such as fruits and vegetables, and nutrition and rural development programs.
Harkin, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Commit-tee, has yet to announce his proposal, which the Senate will start work on in September, but Kind said he’s optimistic it will include some of his ideas.
Kind said he spent half an hour on the phone Friday morning with Harkin, explaining the reform amendment.
“He said, ‘Ron, that’s what I want to accomplish on the Senate floor. … I want to phase out these direct payments like you’re trying to do, I want to have a revenue-based safety net like you were proposing,’” Kind said.
Harkin said in a statement Friday: “It seems clear that though his (Kind’s) amendment didn’t prevail, his hard work for these priorities has significantly influenced the House farm bill.”
Kind said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa also wants lower payment caps. “I know I can’t be that far off base when you’ve got people like that saying this is the direction we need to go in,” Kind said.
The White House has threatened to veto the final House bill, saying doesn’t go far enough. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said it misses an opportunity to overhaul the subsidy program, a theme Kind echoed.
“I had high hopes that this Congress — given market conditions and our commitment to a new direction for this country — would have the stomach to reform these outdated and unfair policies. Sadly, I was wrong,” Kind said.
“That said, by changing this Farm Bill debate, our reform coalition was able to push the Agriculture Committee to make additional investments in conservation and nutrition, and make some modest inroads on limiting subsidies to the largest and wealthiest farmers.”
Tom Buis, president of the National Farmers Union, said Friday he thinks the Senate bill could further reduce subsidies. But in a conference call Friday with reporters, Buis also criticized Kind and other reformers.
“I think Kind and their supporters did a good job of passing a lot of misinformation out there,” Buis said. “They use numbers that 80 percent of the payments go to 10 percent of the producers. That’s wrong.”
Anne Lupardus, Kind’s press secretary, said the figures Kind used came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the Environmental Working Group.
Lupardus said commodity interest groups “don’t want that information out there” about large farm subsidy payments.
Reid Magney can be reached at (608) 791-8211 or rmagney@lacrossetribune.com. .
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