THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 22, 1996 TAG: 9603220569
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
A compromise farm bill that breaks the Depression-era link between crop prices and government payments cleared a panel of House and Senate negotiators Thursday after they agreed on overhauling dairy programs.
The agreement paves the way for final passage next week of the seven-year bill, intended to shift agriculture to producing for a rapidly growing overseas market. The measure ends price-based subsidies for major crops in favor of fixed but declining payments to growers of corn, other feed grains, cotton, rice and wheat.
The price subsidy for peanuts would survive.
The administration has yet to say clearly whether it will support the measure. It grants administration requests for rural development and nutrition programs, but falls short of the more traditional farmer protections sought by the administration.
Still, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said he knew farmers were pressing for action because planting season is moving ever closer north to the grain-rich Midwest.
``It is imperative to take judicious notice of the clock,'' Glickman told reporters before the compromise was approved.
The major crops provision would guarantee growers $36 billion in ``market transition payments'' over seven years. A special commission would recommend the future farm program.
Government controls over what farmers could grow in order to get payments would mostly end. The government could no longer require that farmers idle acres in order to get payments.
``Clearly today we're on the brink of enacting a market transition plan that will guarantee farmers stability over the next seven years while getting the dead hand of government out of the business of farming,'' said Rep. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.
Finding an agreement on dairy was the hard part because nearly every part of the country has dairy farmers who produce milk for different uses and get a wide range of prices.
The dairy compromise would end a deficit-reduction tax on dairy farmers and phase out guaranteed prices over four years.
Although the final numbers have yet to be tallied, the measure may cut around $2 billion from farm spending over the next seven years, projected to be $48.8 billion. by CNB