Crop prices are sky-high. President Bush, who thinks the nation's farm program is bloated, is leaving office and doesn't need to court voters in rural America. There is less budget money to work with. The leadership in Congress doesn't exactly hail from farm country, and those lawmakers who do also must grapple with bigger election-year problems
- such as mounting job losses and a deepening foreclosure crisis.
"When you don't have enough budget the fights become more intense over those precious resources," said Tom Buis, president of the National Farmers Union. "You kind of have this perfect storm, all coming together at the same time, and you add in a lot of new players to the farm bill process, people that just say,
'Oh, farmers are greedy' or 'Farmers don't need this.'"
Things were different in 2002, when the last bill to expand agriculture and nutrition programs was written. Back then, rural America was recovering from hard times and there was more federal money to be spread around.
Bush was never a fan of the bill, but he signed it anyway with lukewarm praise. He still faced a re-election campaign, and his party was eyeing a Senate takeover.
"It's not a perfect bill, I know that," he said then.
This year, as Congress struggles to rewrite a new farm bill, Bush has less to lose. His administration has taken a hard line on multibillion-dollar farm bills passed by the House and Senate that would expand farmer subsidies even as crop prices skyrocket.
Congressional dynamics have also changed since the last farm bill. Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader from South Dakota who brokered the negotiations six years ago, lost his seat in 2004. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Republican, also hailed from a farm state, Texas.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada have not traditionally been involved in farm debates. Reid's home state has little agriculture and Pelosi is from urban San Francisco.
Bush has threatened to veto both the House and Senate bills. That opposition and congressional infighting have stalled the bill, and negotiations are in disarray.
Negotiators face several obstacles. The Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate agriculture committees, Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, have lost control of the legislation as tax packages were added to both bills to help pay for them and win votes.
That has brought into the mix House Ways and Means Committee chairman
Charlie Rangel, who represents few farmers in his New York City district. He
and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., are charged with finding an
extra $10 billion for the bill but have agreed on very little.
