New farm bill divides Bush and lawmakers

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Lawmakers begin work on a new multibillion-dollar farm bill at odds with President Bush over whether big changes really are needed.

The two sides are far apart. Just how far, farmers saw for themselves during the American Farm Bureau Federation's recent meeting in Salt Lake City.

"I think the bill could look a lot like what we have now. What I think we're going to end up doing, you could say, is extending the farm bill," Rep. Collin Peterson (news, bio, voting record), D-Minn., chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, told farmers.

Contrast that with Bush's agriculture secretary, Mike Johanns, who said at the meeting that farm programs need an overhaul.

"I will be the first to argue that the 2002 farm bill was good policy for its time," Johanns said. "But the agricultural and economic realities that influenced the development of the '02 farm bill — they simply don't exist."

The farm bill — really a series of federal programs — gives farmers payments and other help to supplement their incomes, support crop prices and manage supplies.

Near $18 billion in public money was spent on these programs last year. The current farm bill, written in 2002, expires at the end of this year.

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On the Net:

Agriculture Department background on the 2002 farm bill: ERS/USDA Features - The 2002 Farm Bill: Provisions and Economic Implications

Farm Bureau: The Voice of Agriculture - American Farm Bureau