Congress sends a farm bill to Bush _ again

AP via SFGate ^ | 6/5/8 | MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press Writer

[SmithL]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress on Thursday sent a $290 billion farm bill to President Bush for a second time in an effort to fix a printing error that has threatened the delivery of U.S. food aid abroad.

To ensure that the aid continues amid a global hunger crisis, Congress and Bush were planning to pass, veto and enact the bill to provide farm subsidies, food stamps and other nutrition programs over the next five years.

The Senate passed the bill 77-15, two weeks after the discovery that 34 pages of the legislation extending those aid programs were missing from the parchment copy that Congress sent the White House. Bush vetoed that version and the House and Senate then enacted it with two-thirds majority votes overriding the veto.

All of it became law, except for the section dealing with international food aid. The House voted to pass the entire bill again, and Thursday's Senate action will send it to Bush for what the White House says will be a second veto.

Once that occurs, Congress plans to again override the veto. Then international food aid programs will join the rest of the package as law.

The White House is calling it "Farm Bill II: The Sequel."

[SmithL]

Another veto in the making

[doodad]

fix a printing error that has threatened the delivery of U.S. food aid abroad

must have been the word NO

[HoosierHawk]

About $40 billion is for farm subsidies, and almost $30 billion would go to farmers to idle their land and for other environmental programs.

Because the price of food, (grain), isn't high enough?

[elpadre]

“...About $40 billion is for farm subsidies....”

much of which to to large farm corporations making a ton of profits without the subsidies, as I understand.

[batter]

Oink Oink.

[batter]

This just in:

Step Aside Deborah Palfrey, there's a another "Madame" in town taking Congress by storm!

Picture Follows:

[HoosierHawk]

Yes. Also, from 2001:

If current trends continue, this small cadre of subsidy recipients (which includes Members of Congress, Fortune 500 companies, and multimillionaire "hobby farmers" such as Ted Turner, Scott Pippen, and David Rockefeller) can expect a $308 billion windfall over the next decade, and large subsidies will continue to dwarf the $935 median annual subsidy that most subsidized farmers can expect.

From The Heritage Foundation.

[elpadre]

thanks for that info - it rings true from experience and observations over the past 15-20+ years