Kent Conrad: “They are at it again. The critics of farm programs are suggesting bad policy for agriculture and are trying to break the…”

“They are at it again. The critics of farm programs are suggesting bad policy for agriculture and are trying to break the promise just made to the American farmer. On April 4 this year, the President signed into law the 1996 farm bill. That is April 4 of this year. The proponents of that bill claim they had a 7-year plan for agriculture, one that promised to be reliable, one that promised to provide certainty, one that promised to reduce Government interference. The farm bill passed, and now we see how quickly their promises have been broken. The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee proposed additional cuts in addition to those already made in commodity payments under the freedom to farm legislation. They broke their promise to the American farmer--not 7 years later, but 7 weeks later. So much for reliability and certainty. Thankfully, those additional cuts in commodity payments were rejected at the full committee level. But the critics of the farm program did not stop there. They proposed, on the House side, capping raw sugar prices. Imagine, people who advocate market orientation are placing into law a limit on what prices could be in an industry. If that is not Government interference, I do not know what is. Under that amendment, the Republican-led House would be telling the Government to reach into the sugar market and place an arbitrary cap on prices. It is the ultimate irony--Government interference at its worst. Once again, a promise was broken.”