House Nips Moves to Extend Farms Programs

By ANDREW TAYLOR

WASHINGTON – Efforts to extend federal programs helping peanut and dairy farmers were quashed Tuesday as the House debated a bill funding several farm and food programs.

The Milk Income Loss Contract program pays dairy farmers when milk prices fall below a specified level. The peanut storage program pays storage and handling fees as peanut farmers market their crop.

Georgia GOP Rep. Jack Kingston obtained a one-year extension of the peanut program during Appropriations Committee debate on the bill earlier this month. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., won a one-month extension of the MILC program.

Those steps were noteworthy because they extended the two programs until the 2002 farm bill expires next year. That would have given supporters a leg up in extending them during next year’s farm bill debate.

But Agriculture Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., objected to the intrusion onto his turf and killed the provisions on procedural grounds.

“We will now face a situation under which dairy will be at a distinct disadvantage when the farm bill is renewed,” Obey said.

Kingston predicted Georgia’s senators would have more success in extending the peanut storage program, which expires at the end of the crop year.

The broader bill essentially freezes funding for programs under the direct control of lawmakers at $18.5 billion. Bush proposed a cut of $564 million from such programs, about 3 percent.

All told, the bill contains $94.5 billion, including funding for benefit programs such as food stamps.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., said the bill contains $435 million worth of hometown earmarks by lawmakers. He says that total is $35 million below a comparable figure for last year’s bill.

Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a vocal opponent of earmarks, prepared 14 amendments to strip out earmarks such as $726,000 to develop a marketing plan to showcase the greenhouse nursery of Ohio’s Maumee Valley.

The underlying bill preserves the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, targeted for elimination by President Bush in February in a cost-cutting move.

The program gives beneficiaries powdered milk, vegetables, cereal, juice, meat, fruit, rice, cheese and other food as an alternative to food stamps.