Stack of Farm Proposals Is Coming Up for Votes

By RON NIXON

WASHINGTON — The Senate began voting Tuesday on a slimmed-down list of amendments to a farm bill that would set the nation’s food and agriculture policy for the next five years.

The number of proposed amendments had grown to about 300, covering a range of issues like crop insurance subsidies and aid to Pakistan. But late Monday, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, reached an agreement that narrowed the list to 73.

“This is not a great agreement, but it’s a good agreement,” Mr. Reid said Monday night.

Among the amendments approved on Tuesday was a proposal by Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, to add more peas, lentils and chickpeas to the federal school lunch program. The vote was 58 to 41.

Another amendment, by Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, would require the Agriculture Department to study an insurance program for poultry producers that would protect them from disease outbreaks or bankruptcies. It passed on a voice vote.

The Senate voted down amendments by Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, that would have changed the eligibility requirements for recipients of food stamps and would have ended bonuses to states for increasing enrollments in the food stamp program.

Mr. Reid and Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat who is the chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, had hoped to remove several amendments unrelated to farm policy.

But several still made the final list, including an amendment by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, that would require the Defense Department to study the impact of $500 billion in spending cuts. Another unrelated amendment, by Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, would cut off federal financing for presidential nominating conventions.

The farm bill seeks to change policy fundamentally by eliminating millions of dollars in payments to farmers and farmland owners as a cushion against losses when crop prices fall. Instead, crop insurance, which guarantees revenue when there are drops in prices or crop yields, would become the primary safety net for farmers.

But unlike direct payments to farmers, crop insurance subsidies do not have payment limits. Several lawmakers, including Mr. Coburn and Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, have offered amendments that would reduce the amount of the insurance subsidies that higher-income farmers could get.

Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, offered an amendment that would prevent anyone with over $250,000 in annual adjusted gross income from receiving any kind of federal farm payment. Mr. Paul said current farm policy allowed people like the former basketball star Scottie Pippen to receive farm payments. The amendment was defeated after Ms. Stabenow said the farm bill would already limit payments to higher-income farmers.

An amendment by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, would have cut the amount paid to insurance companies to subsidize their costs in selling crop insurance. Last year, the government paid insurance companies $1.3 billion, and Ms. Gillibrand’s amendment would have reduced that amount to offset a $4.5 billion cut to the food stamp program. But the Senate rejected the amendment, 66 to 33.

An amendment by Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, would allow the agriculture secretary to issue grants to promote the maple syrup industry.

The farm bill would cut $23 billion from agriculture programs, mostly by eliminating direct payments and cutting financing for food stamps, which the Agriculture Committee said would contribute to reducing the deficit.

But critics have argued that savings from ending the direct payments would be plowed into two other programs that could prove costly: a $3 billion insurance program that would subsidize crop insurance deductibles for farmers, and another program that would add an extra layer of protection to guarantee 10 to 15 percent of a farmer’s revenue, paying out not only in years of heavy losses but also when revenue dips less severely. Crop insurance already guarantees about 75 percent of a farmer’s revenue.

Original Article Here