Major Farm Bill Divides Lawmakers, Bush

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns speaks during a forum about the next farm bill, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005, at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. The nation's farm policy must shift away from only protecting producers' pocketbooks to withstand international scrutiny now that most U.S. cotton is exported, Johanns said Wednesday Jan. 10, 2007. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) (Charlie Neibergall - AP)

WASHINGTON -- 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, 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.

Congress and the administration disagree mightily on what the new farm bill should look like.

Which side is closer to the wishes of Farm Bureau, the biggest general-interest agriculture group?

Right now, probably the House Agriculture Committee chairman, said Bob Stallman, the organization's president. Johanns advocated massive changes, Stallman said.

"That, frankly, is not what our delegates are saying," he said.

Not that farmers are in lock step.